Can attitudes about smoking impact cigarette cravings?

Cigarette cravings, especially those in response to environmental stressors and other smoking-related triggers (e.g., passing by a favorite smoking spot), are important contributors to smoking behavior and relapse. Previous studies have demonstrated significant individual differences in such cravings. This study explores the possibility that attitudes about smoking can influence the experience of cigarette craving. Consistent with classical theories of the links between cognition and motivation, we predicted that smokers who exhibit more favorable attitudes towards smoking would have greater cravings. Daily smokers (n=103, mean age=41.8years, 33% female) were instructed to imagine smoking, stress, and neutral scenarios. Cravings were measured prior to and after each exposure. Participants also completed an abridged version of the Smoking Consequence Questionnaire (SCQ) that had them rate the: 1) desirability and 2) likelihood, for eighteen separate negative smoking consequences (e.g., "The more I smoke, the more I risk my health", "People will think less of me if they see me smoking"). Findings revealed that favorable attitudes about the consequences of smoking, as measured by the SCQ-desirability index, significantly predicted cigarette cravings. Findings suggest that individual attitudes toward smoking may play an important role in better understanding cigarette cravings, which may ultimately help identify targets for more efficient and effective cognitive/attitude-based interventions for smoking cessation.

Cue-induced cigarette and food craving: a common effect?

Cue-induced cravings may hinder behavior change efforts such as smoking cessation. Correlation of cue-induced cravings across multiple stimuli would provide evidence for a cue-reactive phenotype that may have implications for behavior change therapies. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between cue-induced cravings for cigarettes and cue-induced cravings for a highly preferred food (chocolate) in a sample of smokers not subjected to lengthy deprivation for either of these two appetitive outcomes. Adult smokers (N=164) were assessed for chocolate cravings before and after exposure to chocolate cues and cigarette cravings before and after exposure to smoking cues. Consistent with previous reports, cigarette cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure and chocolate cravings increased significantly post-cue exposure (p's<.0001). Consistent with study hypotheses, the magnitude of the increase in chocolate cravings after cue-exposure was significantly related to the increase in post-cue cigarette cravings (r=0.38; p<.0001), and was significantly related to scores on a retrospective, self-report, measure of cue-induced food cravings in daily life. These findings are consistent with the idea of a general "cue-reactive" phenotype that varies across individuals, a conceptualization of risk that may point the way toward improved interventions for a variety of hedonically mediated behaviors with negative health outcomes.