August 19, 2010 - A study conducted by researchers at St. George’s University of London and the University of Hertfordshire found that suppressing thoughts of cigarettes while trying to quit may be creating greater obstacles in terms of quitting.  By using this cessation technique, smokers may be hurting their chances of succeeding in their quit attempt.  As Dr. Erskine, co-author of the report, explains “If trying to avoid thoughts of something in an attempt to give it up actually unwittingly triggers a subsequent increase, it’s a poor method of self control.” Such a phenomenon is known as “behavioral rebound,” where avoiding thinking about a behavior simply triggers that behavior to occur even more.

Researchers enrolled eighty-five smokers who smoked at least ten cigarettes a day in the study.  These study participants were broken into three groups and their smoking status was subsequently followed for three weeks.  In the first and third week, participants were told to behave as they normally would.  However, in the second week, 30 participants were instructed to suppress their thoughts of cigarettes; 29 participants were instructed to actively think of cigarettes; and 26 participants served as the control group and were told not to change any behavior.

For both the group that expressed thoughts of cigarettes and the control group, cigarette consumption was about the same for each of the three weeks.  For the group that suppressed their thoughts of cigarettes, participants smoked on average 5 less cigarettes than the expression group and 4 less cigarettes than the control group during the second week.  However, after the third week when the participants were told to behave normally, study participants in the suppression group smoked almost  three more cigarettes than the participants in the other two groups.  This overall comparison was the result of participants in this group smoking an additional 6 cigarettes from week two to week three after they stopped suppressing their thoughts of cigarettes.

These results show that the behavioral rebound phenomenon does occur with smoking and that while suppressing the thought of cigarettes may help smokers quit initially, it is not an effective strategy for quitting in the long-term.  While smokers were told to stop suppressing their thoughts in this study, in real life there are many factors that make it impossible to keep suppressing one’s thoughts indefinitely.  Hopefully evidence from this study can be used to help determine the best suitable cessation techniques.

For more information please visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100817143812.htm