Print

Lussier, Jennifer Plebani

Psychology

2004

Ph. D.

There is ample clinical evidence in smoking cessation that relapse risk decreases as abstinence duration increases. However, such clinical results are correlational in nature. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to bring abstinence under experimental control and to test the influence of abstinence duration on relapse risk. Subjects were 63 adult smokers not currently trying to quit. Subjects were randomized into one of three conditions: 14-day contingent (14C), 7-day contingent (7C), and 1-day contingent (IC). Smoking status was assessed 3x/day for 14 consecutive days, with abstinence operationalized as breath CO 4ppm. In the 14C condition, monetary payment was abstinence-contingent for all 14 days; in the 7C condition, payment was non-contingent for Days 1-7 and abstinence-contingent for Days 8-14; in the 1 C condition, payment was non-contingent for Days 1-13 and abstinence-contingent for Day 14. After abstinence monitoring concluded on Day 14, all subjects completed a three-hour laboratory challenge session wherein relapse risk was modeled using a discrete-trial choice procedure. During this session, subjects made a maximum of 20 exclusive choices between receiving two puffs on a cigarette of their preferred brand or receiving money ($.25/choice). Abstinence was successfully manipulated, as there were almost no instances of abstinence when payment was non-contingent, while 99% of specimens met the abstinence criterion during contingent periods. During the challenge session, 19% (l4C), 57% (7C) and 62% (lC) of subjects chose to smoke ( 2(2) = 9.33, P = .01). Choices made by those in the 14C condition differed significantly from both the 7C ( 2 (1) = 6.46, P = .01) and lC ( 2 (1) = 8.00, P = .005) conditions, but the 7C and lC conditions did not differ significantly ( 2 (1) = 0.10, P = .75). These results provide experimental evidence that increasing the duration of abstinence decreases the probability of choosing smoking over alternative reinforcers, suggesting a causal role for prior abstinence in decreasing relapse risk.