Elevated Positive Mood: A Mixed Blessing for Abstinence

Authors

Neal Doran, University of Illinois at Chicago
Bonnie Spring, University of Illinois at Chicago and Hines VA Hospital
Belinda Borrelli, Brown Medical School and The Miriam Hospital
Dennis E. McChargue, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Brian Hitsman, Brown Medical School and The Miriam Hospital
Raymond Niaura, Brown Medical School and The Miriam Hospital
Donald Hedecker, University of Illinois at Chicago

Date of this Version

August 2006

Comments

Published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 2006, Vol. 20, No. 1, 36-43. Copyright 2006. Used by permission.

Abstract

The present study, a secondary analysis of published data (B. Hitsman et al., 1999), assessed (a) the influence of initial positive mood (PM) on smoking cessation and (b) whether smokers low in PM benefited from fluoxetine versus placebo for cessation. Euthymic adult smokers (N = 103) received 10 weeks of cessation treatment. Analyses showed a Time x PM interaction, indicating that higher baseline PM predicted decreased abstinence during treatment but increased abstinence afterward, mediated by time to dropout. Dichotomous initial PM interacted with drug, suggesting a benefit of fluoxetine for low-PM smokers. Results indicate that lower pretreatment PM may inhibit long-term cessation. Smokers with lower baseline PM may benefit from treatment that increases PM.