Background: This study explores the shared and specific associations of brooding rumination and anxiety sensitivity to depression and anxiety symptomatology in a sample of treatment-seeking smokers.
Methods: The sample was composed of 275 treatment-seeking adult smokers. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relations of both variables with depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Results: Greater brooding rumination and anxiety sensitivity predicted higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. A specific relationship emerged after controlling for comorbid symptoms (depressive or anxiety symptoms) where brooding rumination was associated with depressive symptoms and anxiety sensitivity with anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions: The findings showed that the variables examined are transdiagnostically related to emotional symptoms, but this relationship was symptomatology-specific when controlling for comorbid symptoms (depressive or anxiety symptoms). Due to the impact of affective symptoms on abstinence outcomes, these findings have relevant clinical implications. In the context of smoking cessation treatment, identifying shared and specific vulnerabilities might contribute to tailoring and designing more precise and effective interventions for quitting smoking.