Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Influences of Barriers to Cessation and Reasons for Quitting on Substance Use among Treatment-Seeking Smokers Who Report Heavy Drinking

Dawn W Foster^1*, Norman B Schmidt² and Michael J Zvolensky^3,4

¹Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA

²Florida State University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, USA

³The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Behavioral Science, New Haven, CT, USA

⁴University of Houston, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, USA

Corresponding Author:

Dawn W Foster
Psychiatry Department at Yale Schol of Medicine
Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, USA
Tel: 203 974 7892
E-mail: dawn.foster@yale.edu

Received: September 11, 2015; Accepted: October 09, 2015; Published: October 15, 2015

Citation: Foster DW, Schmidt NB, Zvolensky MJ (2015) Influences of Barriers to Cessation and Reasons for Quitting on Substance Use among Treatment-Seeking Smokers Who Report Heavy Drinking. J Addict Res Ther 6:246. doi:10.4172/2155- 6105.1000246

Copyright: © 2015 Foster DW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Objective: We examined behavioral and cognitively-based quit processes among concurrent alcohol and tobacco users and assessed whether smoking and drinking were differentially influenced.
Method: Participants were 200 treatment-seeking smokers (37.50% female; Mage=30.72; SD=12.68) who reported smoking an average of 10 or more cigarettes daily for at least one year.
Results: Barriers to cessation (BCS) and reasons for quitting (RFQ) were generally correlated with substance use. BCS moderated the relationship between quit methods and cigarette use such that quit methods were negatively associated with smoking, particularly among those with more BCS. RFQ moderated the association between quit methods and cigarette use such that quit methods were negatively linked with smoking among those with fewer RFQ, but positively linked with smoking among those with more RFQ. Two 3-way interactions emerged. The first 3-way indicated that among individuals with fewer RFQ, quit methods was negatively associated with smoking, and this was strongest among those with more BCS. However, among those with more RFQ, smoking and quit methods were positively associated, particularly among those with more BCS. The second 3-way showed that among those with fewer RFQ, quit methods was negatively linked with drinking frequency, and this was strongest among those with more BCS. However, among those with fewer BCS, drinking and quit methods were positively linked.
Conclusion: The relationship between behavioral and cognitively-based quit processes and substance use is not straightforward. There may be concurrent substance-using individuals for whom these processes might be associated with increased substance use.

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