Thought suppression and smoking relapse: a secondary analysis of Haaga (1989)

Previous research indicates that use of cognitive coping strategies in high risk situations is positively correlated with smoking cessation maintenance. Basic research on self-control of unwanted thoughts, however, suggests that mental coping efforts involving thought suppression should be ineffective. We evaluated this possibility by rescoring the articulated thoughts transcripts of 95 subjects from a one-year prospective study of smoking relapse (Haaga, 1989). Frequent use of cognitive coping tactics for reframing high risk situations (e.g. reminding oneself of negative consequences of smoking) predicted greater likelihood of continuous abstinence in the following three months (49 per cent success for those above the sample median, 20 per cent for those below the median). This effect was marginally significant at a 12-month follow-up. By contrast, thought suppression showed no association with maintenance of non-smoking. Discussion focused on complications in applying laboratory research on thought suppression and on reanalysis of cognitive assessment protocols.