Past-month pain and cognitiveaffective smoking processes among daily smokers

Objectives: Initial evidence suggests that painmaymotivate smoking, impede quitting, precipitate relapse, and play an important role in the maintenance of tobacco addiction. Despite this emerging literature, little is known about how cognitive-Affective smoking processes may differ as a function of comorbid pain status. The goal of the current study was to test cross-sectional relations between past-month pain and reasons for quitting smoking, somatic symptom-related abstinence expectancies, and symptoms experienced during the most recent quit attempt, among a sample of daily tobacco smokers who were willing to engage in an unaided quit attempt. Methods: Participants included 109 adult smokers (34.9% female; Mage=32.9, SD=13.6) who were recruited to participate in an unaided quit attempt. Results: Smokers who endorsed past-month pain reported more reasons for quitting smoking, higher levels of somatic symptoms-related abstinence expectancies, and greater number of problems experienced during their most recent quit attempt. Conclusions: The present study serves as an initial investigation into the nature of current levels of pain in relation to a variety of cognitive-Affective aspects of smoking. Clinical strategies that modify the pain experience may enhance motivation to quit and facilitate success in quitting.