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Life 1 Year After a Quit Attempt: Real-Time Reports of Quitters and Continuing Smokers

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Smokers are often reluctant to quit because they fear long-lasting withdrawal. Yet little research prospectively examines smokers’ withdrawal longer than 1 month post-quit.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to compare successful versus unsuccessful quitters’ withdrawal, positive affect/pleasure, and lifestyle at 1 year post-quit.

Methods

Smokers (N = 572) in a cessation trial completed ecological momentary assessments four times a day for 1 week pre-quit, 1 week post-quit, and 1 week at 1 year post-quit.

Results

From pre-quit to 1 year later, only quitters reported sizeable declines in craving and restlessness, and fewer stressful events. At 1 year, quitters, on average, reported no significant craving. Continuing smokers reduced their cigarette consumption considerably from pre-quit to 1 year later.

Conclusions

Contrary to smokers’ worries, long-term quitters reported less craving and restlessness than when they smoked (perhaps because cessation eliminates the acute nicotine withdrawal smokers experience between cigarettes). This information may encourage smokers to quit and endure withdrawal.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the staff at the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health for their help with this research. We are particularly grateful to Stevens S. Smith for statistical advice and to Linda Kurowski and Wendy Theobald for their technical assistance.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Tanya R. Schlam, Megan E. Piper, Jessica W. Cook, and Timothy B. Baker have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose. Over the last 3 years, Dr. Michael C. Fiore has served as an investigator on a research study at the University of Wisconsin that was funded in part by Nabi Pharmacueticals. From 1997 to 2010, Dr. Fiore held a University of Wisconsin named Chair for the Study of Tobacco Dependence, made possible by a gift to University of Wisconsin from GlaxoWellcome.

This research was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was supported by grant P50 DA019706 from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA); by grant M01 RR03186 from the General Clinical Research Centers Program of the National Center for Research Resources, NIH; by grants 1K05CA139871 and K08DA021311 from NIH; and by the Wisconsin Partnership Program. Medication was provided to participants at no cost under a research agreement with GlaxoSmithKline; no part of this manuscript was written or edited by anyone employed by GlaxoSmithKline. The authors are solely responsible for the analyses, content, and writing of this article. The authors have full control of all primary data, and they agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

We declare that this research complies with the current laws of the USA. All participants gave written informed consent prior to entering the study, and the study was approved by the University of Wisconsin Health Sciences Institutional Review Board. Clinical trial registration: NCT00332644 (www.ClinicalTrails.gov).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 1930 Monroe St., Suite 200, Madison, WI, 53711, USA

    Tanya R. Schlam Ph.D., Megan E. Piper Ph.D., Jessica W. Cook Ph.D., Michael C. Fiore M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. & Timothy B. Baker Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Tanya R. Schlam Ph.D.
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  2. Megan E. Piper Ph.D.
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  3. Jessica W. Cook Ph.D.
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  4. Michael C. Fiore M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
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  5. Timothy B. Baker Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tanya R. Schlam Ph.D..

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Schlam, T.R., Piper, M.E., Cook, J.W. et al. Life 1 Year After a Quit Attempt: Real-Time Reports of Quitters and Continuing Smokers. ann. behav. med. 44, 309–319 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9399-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9399-9

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