Psychology
Distress tolerance treatment for early-lapse smokers: Rationale, program description, and preliminary findings
Document Type
Article
Abstract
A significant percentage of individuals attempting smoking cessation lapse within a matter of days, and very few are able to recover to achieve long-term abstinence. This observation suggests that many smokers may have quit-attempt histories characterized exclusively by early lapses to smoking following quit attempts. Recent negative-reinforcement conceptualizations of early lapse to smoking suggest that individuals' reactions to withdrawal and inability to tolerate the experience of these symptoms, rather than withdrawal severity itself, may represent an important treatment target in the development of new behavioral interventions for this subpopulation of smokers. This article presents the theoretical rationale and describes a novel, multicomponent distress-tolerance treatment for early-lapse smokers that incorporates behavioral and pharmacological elements of standard smoking-cessation treatment, whereas drawing distress-tolerance elements from exposure-based and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based treatment approaches. Preliminary data from a pilot study (N = 16) are presented, and clinical implications are discussed. © 2008 Sage Publications.
Publication Title
Behavior Modification
Publication Date
2008
Volume
32
Issue
3
First Page
302
Last Page
332
ISSN
0145-4455
DOI
10.1177/0145445507309024
Keywords
acceptance, distress tolerance, smoking cessation
Repository Citation
Brown, Richard A.; Palm, Kathleen M.; Strong, David R.; Lejuez, Carl W.; Kahler, Christopher W.; Zvolensky, Michael J.; Hayes, Steven C.; Wilson, Kelly G.; and Gifford, Elizabeth V., "Distress tolerance treatment for early-lapse smokers: Rationale, program description, and preliminary findings" (2008). Psychology. 597.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_psychology/597