Background and objectives: There is evidence that anxiety sensitivity (AS) plays a role in the maintenance of smoking, yet there is little understanding of how AS interplays with other affective symptomatology variables that are also related to smoking, such as dysphoria. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study evaluated the interactive effects of AS and dysphoria on emotion regulatory cognitions, including smoking negative affect reduction expectancies, perceived barriers for cessation, and smoking-specific experiential avoidance.
Method: A total of 448 adult treatment-seeking daily smokers, who responded to study advertisements, were recruited to participate in a smoking cessation treatment trial (47.8% female; Mage = 37.2, SD = 13.5). The current study utilized self-report baseline data from trial participants.
Results: After accounting for covariates, simple slope analyses revealed that AS was positively related to negative affect reduction expectancies (β = .03, p = .01), perceived barriers to cessation (β = .22, p = .002), and smoking avoidance and inflexibility (β = .07, p = .04), among smokers with lower (vs. higher) levels of dysphoria.
Conclusions: The current findings suggest that higher levels of dysphoria may mitigate the relation between AS and emotion regulatory cognitions of smoking.
Scientific significance: The current findings highlight the unique and additive clinical relevance of AS and dysphoria regarding emotion regulatory smoking cognitions that may impede quit success. (Am J Addict 2016;25:267-274).
© 2016 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.