Nature and role of change in anxiety sensitivity during NRT-aided cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment

This study evaluated the associations between change in anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of the negative consequences of anxiety and related sensations) and lapse and relapse during a 4-week group NRT-aided cognitive-behavioral Tobacco Intervention Program. Participants were 67 (44 women; M (age) = 46.2 years, SD = 10.4) adult daily smokers. Results indicated that participants who maintained high levels of AS from pretreatment to 1 month posttreatment, compared to those who demonstrated a significant reduction in AS levels during this time period, showed a significantly increased risk for lapse and relapse. Further inspection indicated that higher continuous levels of AS physical and psychological concerns, specifically among those participants who maintained elevated levels of AS from pre- to posttreatment, predicted significantly greater risk for relapse. Findings are discussed with respect to better understanding change in AS, grounded in an emergent taxonic-dimensional factor mixture model of the construct, with respect to lapse and relapse during smoking cessation.