Psychologists Study New Treatments for Smokers from Underserved Populations
In a special section of this month’s issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, researchers report on several effective treatments that may help these smokers in an effort to increase national smoking cessation rates. The percentage of American smokers rose from 19.8 percent in 2007 to 20.6 percent in 2008, after a 10-year steady decline in smoking rates, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“One of the reasons smoking rates have remained stagnant is because these underserved groups of smokers have not been adequately targeted by research and treatment,” said the special section editor, Belinda Borrelli, PhD, who is with the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at
In one article, researchers found that success in stopping smoking differed for different psychiatric disorders. For example, compared to smokers with no psychiatric disorders, smokers who had an anxiety disorder were less likely to quit smoking six months after treatment.
In the same article, researchers found that people’s barriers to quitting were directly related to what type of psychiatric disorder they had. For example, smokers who had ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder reported a strong emotional bond with their cigarettes while smokers ever diagnosed with a substance use disorder reported that social and environmental influences were especially likely to affect their smoking. “This information may help clinicians gauge relapse risk and identify treatment targets among smokers who have ever had psychological illnesses,” said lead author Megan Piper, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Evidence-based smoking cessation treatments are addressed in another article in this special section. Researchers from the
Compared with general health education, participation in cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions more than doubled the rate of quitting at a six month follow-up, from 14 percent to 31 percent the researchers found. “We know cognitive-behavioral therapy helps people quit, but few studies have examined this treatment’s effect on African-American smokers,” said the study’s lead author, Monica Webb, PhD, of the
Borrelli, the section editor, examined another minority group—Latinos. She measured the amount of second-hand smoke in participants’ homes and gave feedback to smokers about how much smoke their child with asthma was exposed to. For example, they were told that their child was exposed to as much smoke as if the child smoked ‘x’ number of cigarettes him- or herself during the week of the measurement – this was the experimental group. Smokers in the control group underwent standard cognitive-behavioral treatment for smoking cessation. Smokers in the experimental group were twice as likely to quit as the control group, Borrelli found. “The child’s asthma problems may provide a teachable moment for parents whereby they become more open to the smoking cessation messages,” Borrelli said. “Providing treatment that is focused on the health needs of the family, and delivered in a culturally tailored manner, has the potential to address health care disparities for Latino families.”
Special Section: "Smoking Cessation – Innovative Treatments and Understudied Populations," Section Editor: Belinda Borrelli, PhD, Brown University Medical School and Miriam Hospital; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 78, No. 1.
Contact Dr. Belinda Borrelli by e-mail at Belinda_Borrelli@Brown.edu; her phone number is 401.741.7994
Full texts of the articles are available from the APA Public Affairs Office and here:
Smoking Cessation: Next Steps for Special Populations Research and Innovative Treatments
Motivating Latino Caregivers of Children with Asthma to Quit Smoking: A Randomized Trial
Effects of an Intensive Depression-Focused Intervention for Smoking Cessation in Pregnancy
Shaping Smoking Cessation In Hard-To-Treat Smokers
The American Psychological Association, in
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