Smoking and Smoking Cessation Research
Below, are some other interesting research findings...
Contradicting what you probably believe to be true about stopping smoking, Schachter (1982) found that 64% of those who tried to quit smoking on their own managed to do so - many quite painlessly (as cited in Katz and Singh, 1986).
The Role of Beliefs
One reason why people normally find it hard to stop smoking is that they believe it will be hard to quit. This belief that it will be hard to quit tends to be related to beliefs about the addictiveness about nicotine.
Research by Katz and Singh (1986) found:
"Beliefs about the addictive properties of nicotine were associated with the presence of withdrawal symptoms and the number of attempts at quitting before succeeding. Subjects with strong beliefs that nicotine was addictive were the ones who were most troubled by withdrawal symptoms and who had made more attempts at quitting before succeeding"
Atrens (2001) states that:
"The main reason given by smokers for their failure to stop smoking is that they see themselves as addicted (Hennrikus, Jeffery, & Lando, 1995; Stewart et al., 1996). Smokers are widely portrayed as victims of rogue molecular processes in their brains (Chiauzzi & Liljegren, 1993; Russell, 1990b; Schelling, 1992). As long as smoking is portrayed as an inexorable addictive process, the success of cessation programs will be limited by a self-fulfilling prophecy (Coleman, 1976; Drew, 1986; Fingarette, 1979; Fingarette, 1981; Fingarette, 1990; Jensen & Coambs, 1994; Schwartz, 1992)"
Indeed countering the idea that nicotine is addictive, a review of studies on the self-adminstration of pure nicotine by Dar and Frenk (2004) found that:
"None of the studies we reviewed demonstrated nicotine self-administration in smokers. Both smokers and non-smokers failed to show preference for nicotine over placebo in any of these studies, including in a series of six reports of overnight abstinent smokers having access to nicotine nasal spray, a rapidly absorbed form of nicotine."
Dar and Frenk concluded that:
"The failure of smokers to self administer nicotine, as documented here, especially in a fast delivery form like nasal spray and following smoking abstinence, calls for a critical re-evaluation of the nicotine addiction thesis."
Additionally Butschky et al (1995) found that smoking cigarettes with no nicotine in them decreased withdrawal symptoms in abstinent smokers in an equivalent manner to regular nicotine cigarettes. Juliano and Brandon (2002) also found that participants who believed they were smoking a nicotine cigarette, when in fact they was smoking a de-nicotinized one, obtained an equivalent reduction in urge to smoke to those who were actually smoking nicotine cigarettes. Cravings in abstinent smokers have, also, been reduced by the vapor of black pepper (Rose & Behm, 1994, as cited in Atrens, 2001) and citric acid (Westman, Behm, & Rose, 1995, as cited in Atrens 2001)!
Again opposing the addiction theory, Glasgow, Klesges, Mizes and Pechacek (1985) found that:
"results suggest that standard demographic and smoking pattern variables such as sex, number of cigarettes smoked, number of years smoked, and degree of nicotine dependence are not meaningfully related to success among smokers attempting to quit"
Due to strong beliefs that smoking is very addictive and it will be difficult to quit, smokers who wish to stop inadvertently set themselves up to fail. A great quote from a research paper is:
"Eiser and Sutton (1977) have argued that the decision facing the would-be quitter is not whether to smoke or quit but whether to smoke or try to quit."
(Eiser, Van der Pligt, Raw and Sutton, 1985)
I.e. many people do not set out to 'stop smoking' but to 'try to stop'.
A study by Yates and Thain (1985) found that self-efficiacy - belief about whether one could stop smoking - was the best predictor of whether or not a person would stop smoking without relapse at both 4 months and 8 months after quitting. Research by DiClemente (1981) found that, after a stop smoking attempt, relapsers and maintainers did not differ on any demographic or smoking history variables. However, maintainers did show significantly higher self-efficacy scores than relapsers.
Interestingly Stotts et al (1996) found that those who stopped smoking during pregnancy did so far more easily than those stopping who were not pregnant. The study states that "...pregnant women reported significantly higher levels of confidence to abstain from smoking as well as significantly lower levels of temptation to smoke than both of the nonpregnant groups." This suggests that when given a significant incentive to quit stopping smoking can be much easier.
Many smokers appear to have no difficulty in not smoking when laws, religious or social restrictions temporarily restrict them from smoking. One example of this is that Orthodox Jewish smokers are not allowed to smoke during the Sabbath. Shiffman (1991) states:
"According to all accounts, even those who are heavy smokers experience little or no discomfort during this weekly abstinence (Schachter, 1977; Ashton & Stepney, 1982)"
As Atrens says in reference to this research:
"It is difficult to imagine a molecular dysfunction of the brain that respects the Sabbath."
Please click here to return to the main smoking cessation page and learn more about how you can stop smoking.
References
Katz, R. C., & Singh, N. N. (1986b). 'A comparison of current smokers and self-cured quitters on Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule.' Addictive Behaviors, 11, 63-65
Katz, R. C., & Singh, N. N. (1986a). 'Reflections on the ex-smoker: Some findings on successful quitters.' Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 9, 191-202
Atrens, D.M. (2001) 'Nicotine as an addictive substance: a critical examination of the basic concepts and empirical evidence.' Journal of Drug Issues 31 (2) 325-394
Dar, R. and Frenk, H. (2004). 'Do smokers self-administer pure nicotine? A review of the evidence.' Psychopharmacology, 173, 18–26
Butschky, M.F., Bailey, D., Henningfield, J.E. and Pickworth, W.B. (1995). 'Smoking without nicotine delivery decreases withdrawal in 12-hour abstinent smokers.' Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 50 (1) 91-96
Juliano and Brandon (2002) 'Effects of nicotine dose, instructional set, and outcome expectancies on the subjective effects of smoking in the presence of a stressor.' Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111 (1) 88–97
Glasgow, R. E., Klesges, R. C., Mizes, J. S., & Pechacek, T. F. (1985). 'Quitting smoking: Strategies used and variables associated with success in a stop-smoking contest.' Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 905-912
Eiser, J.R, Van der Pligt, J, Raw, M, and Sutton S.R (1985). ‘Trying to Stop Smoking: Effects of Perceived Addiction, Attributions for Failure, and Expectancy of success.’ Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 8 (4) 321-341
Stotts, A.L., Diclemente, C.C., Carbonari, J.P. and Mullen, P.D. (1996). 'Pregnancy smoking cessation: a case of mistaken identity.' Addictive Behaviors, 21 (4) 459-471
Shiffman, S. (1991) 'Refining models of dependence: Variations across persons and situations.' British Journal of Addiction, 86(5), 611-615
