Smoking by young women with restrained eating following a food prime in the context of an alternative distractor.

Female smokers with elevated dietary restraint (high restrainers) may smoke more than nonrestrained eaters after a disinhibiting food event. The current study aimed to determine whether high restrainers smoke merely to distract themselves from unplanned eating or whether the weight-control aspects of smoking play a role. Primary aims were to test the effect of restraint status and a food prime on smoking and eating behavior in the presence of an alternative distractor (a computer tablet) and to examine the role of expectancies. Utilizing a between-subject design, female smokers (N = 128) were randomized to receive a milkshake prime (Prime condition) or not (No-Prime). They then received access to tempting foods, cigarettes, and the computer tablet. As expected, higher dietary restraint predicted shorter latency to smoke and craving to smoke but not latency to use the tablet. Additionally, a pattern of proximal expectancy subscales associated with weight/appetite control predicted cigarette consumption. Neither restraint nor expectancies interacted with condition to predict smoking behavior. Findings suggest that dietary restrainers attempt to prevent food consumption by turning to cigarettes, beyond preference for other salient distracting stimuli. Thus, smoking appears to function as more than simply a distractor from eating, and it is also associated with strong beliefs about weight and appetite control. Results offer implications for assessment and intervention among individuals presenting for smoking cessation treatment, particularly young adult women. Specifically, assessment of dietary restraint and expectancies related to weight and appetite aspects of smoking may be important to consider for tailored interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Smoking as alternative to eating among restrained eaters: effect of food prime on young adult female smokers.

OBJECTIVE: Restrained eaters attempt to employ cognitive control over decisions to eat, which leaves them prone to eat in a disinhibited manner. This eating style is associated with elevated rates of smoking compared to the general population. The current study merged smoking and eating research methodology to investigate a mechanism that may underlie this association by testing whether a food prime, which has been found to elicit disinhibited eating in restrained eaters, could also motivate smoking as an alternative to eating. METHOD: Using a randomized, 2-arm (Prime/No-Prime) between-subjects design, it was hypothesized that young adult female smokers who endorsed elevated dietary restraint and received a food prime would smoke more when given the option, compared to smokers who did not receive the food prime. RESULTS: As predicted, restraint score moderated the effect of the food prime upon smoking behavior (latency to first puff, ß = 1, t = 3.8, df = 123, p < .001) and cigarette craving (ß = -.79, t = -2.9, df = 127, p < .005), suggesting that after a food prime, restrained-eating smokers may opt to smoke to prevent further food intake. CONCLUSION: This study identified a pathway, namely violation of dietary restraint, linking eating and smoking behaviors that may contribute to the population-based covariance between disordered eating and tobacco use.

Influence of affective manipulations on cigarette craving: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Retrospective self-report and observational studies have yielded inconsistent findings regarding the capacity of negative affect (NA) to increase smoking motivation among dependent samples. Controlled laboratory studies offer an alternative paradigm for testing the role of affective state upon smoking motivation. The aim of the current study was to quantify cue-provoked cravings produced by affective manipulations in the published literature, and to identify theoretical and methodological moderators. METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature search to identify experimental studies that manipulated NA or positive affect (PA), and assessed post-manipulation craving. Separate random-effects meta-analyses examined NA and PA cues as predictors of self-reported craving. Self-reported affect (NA and PA), nicotine deprivation, gender, nicotine dependence, order of cue presentation, single versus multi-item craving assessment and affect induction method were tested as moderators of affective cue-induced craving. RESULTS: NA manipulations produced a medium effect [g = 0.47; confidence interval (CI) = 0.31-0.63] on craving, but no main effects were found for PA manipulations (g = 0.05; CI = -0.09 to 0.20) on craving. Self-reported NA moderated the extent to which NA and PA manipulations elicited craving (P < 0.02 for each). That is, more effective NA manipulations produced greater cravings, and PA manipulations reduced cravings when they reduced NA. CONCLUSIONS: Laboratory studies indicate that negative, but not positive, affect is a situational determinant of cravings to smoke among dependent smokers. Adverse emotional states increase craving to smoke among dependent smokers, but positive emotional states do not consistently reduce craving to smoke.

Responding to tobacco craving: experimental test of acceptance versus suppression.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) provides a theoretical rationale for "acceptance" of thoughts and feelings, and proscribes suppression, a more intuitive and commonly used coping strategy. Suppression is theorized to have negative consequences not applicable to acceptance, including depletion in self-control and ironic postsuppression rebound effects. However, it remains largely unknown whether these strategies differentially affect frequency of drug-related thoughts, craving intensity, drug use behavior, or other relevant outcomes. Adult smokers (N = 162) were randomly assigned to receive a brief laboratory-based coping intervention (acceptance or suppression) or were not given coping instructions (control group) and then were exposed to smoking cues. Results indicated that the suppression group was successful at suppressing thoughts of smoking, as they reported fewer thoughts of smoking than the other two groups. Also, both coping strategies were associated with benefits with respect to craving and affect. However, there were no group differences in depletion, and rebound effects did not occur when coping was discontinued. Following the laboratory session, all participants attempted to quit or at least reduce their smoking for 3 days; the acceptance and suppression groups resumed use of their strategy. At 3-day follow-up, the acceptance and suppression groups reported greater self-efficacy for avoiding smoking when experiencing craving compared to the control group. However, there were no group differences in the number of cigarettes smoked during the 3 days. This study provides support for the value of acceptance-based coping, but it also suggests that more research is needed to differentiate its benefits compared to suppression.