Coping with Cigarette Cravings: Comparison of Suppression Versus Mindfulness-Based Strategies

Abstract

Mindfulness-and acceptance-based therapies have been explored within the context of addiction treatment, with some preliminary success. The current empirical study investigated the effectiveness of a brief suppression versus mindfulness-based strategy for coping with cigarette cravings. Participants (N =61; M age= 40.34 years, SD=12.42) were randomly assigned to using one of the two coping strategies to help them manage cravings during an experimental cue exposure to cigarettes. Participants completed self-report measures of self-efficacy, craving, negative affect, depression, and nicotine dependence before and after the cue exposure and at a 7-day follow-up assessment session. Participants in both conditions reported significantly reduced amount of smoking and increased self-efficacy in coping with smoking urges at the 7-day follow-up. However, only participants in the mindfulness condition demonstrated reductions in negative affect, depressive symptoms, and marginal reductions in their level of nicotine dependence. These findings suggest that, although both conditions were associated with improvements on smoking relevant outcomes, only mindfulness had beneficial effects on reported nicotine dependence and emotional functioning over the course of the study. These findings provide preliminary support for the use of mindfulness-based strategies for coping with smoking urges, as these strategies appear to provide some additional benefits not obtained when coping with smoking cravings through suppression.

Mindfulness practice moderates the relationship between craving and substance use in a clinical sample

“…Mindfulness practice may disrupt the relapse cycle by weakening the associative link between craving and use Elwafi et al, 2013;Ostafin, Bauer, & Myxter, 2012;Rogojanski, Vettese, & Antony, 2011).…”

Mindfulness Meditation for the Treatment of Tobacco Use: A Systematic Review

“…Four of the studies delivered the mindfulness intervention in an outpatient setting (Davis, Mills, et al, 2013;Davis, Goldberg, et al, 2014a;Davis, Manley, et al, 2014b;Tang, Tang, and Posner, 2013). In four of the studies, it was unclear where the intervention was delivered (Bowen and Marlatt, 2009;Brewer et al, 2011;Rogojanski, Vettese, and Antony, 2011a;Singh et al, 2014).…”

“…One of the studies utilized integrative body-mind training (Tang, Tang, and Posner, 2013). Three of the studies described their interventions as mindfulness training, mindfulness meditation, and mindfulness-based smoking cessation program (Brewer et al, 2011;Rogojanski, Vettese, and Antony, 2011a;Singh et al, 2014).…”

Effect of Suppressing Thoughts of Desire to Smoke on Ratings of Desire to Smoke and Tobacco Withdrawal Symptoms

“…However, these studies are limited in that they did not differentiate between suppressing thoughts of smoking specifically or other thoughts (Haaga & Allison, 1994;Nosen & Woody, 2009;Rogojanski et al, 2011aRogojanski et al, , 2011b. In addition, Litven, Kovacs, Hayes, and Brandon (2012) observed that both suppression and acceptance strategies were associated with less craving and affect compared with the controls.…”

“…postulated that suppression may exacerbate cigarette cravings, increasing desire to smoke and smoking behavior. Some studies have not found an association between thought suppression and increased smoking (Haaga & Allison, 1994;Nosen & Woody, 2009;Rogojanski, Vettese, & Antony, 2011a, 2011b.…”