PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Thomas H Brandon

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas H Brandon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Relationship between self-reported task persistence and history of quitting smoking, plans for quitting smoking, and current smoking status in adolescents.

The task persistence construct has previously been measured primarily behaviorally (e.g., with a mirror-tracing task, or breath holding), and only in adults. It has been shown to differentiate between adult smokers and non-smokers and to predict smoking cessation in adult smokers trying to quit. This theory-based analysis is the first to examine task persistence in adolescent smokers and to examine a two-item, internally consistent, self-report measure of task persistence. Results indicate that task persistence is greater among adolescent non-smokers as compared to adolescent current smokers, and those planning to quit smoking as compared to those with no plans to quit. Contrary to hypotheses, task persistence was not found to be related to prior successful attempts to quit smoking. Our results suggest that a brief, self-report measure of task persistence may be a methodologically sound, practical clinical tool for this population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The early time course of smoking withdrawal effects.

RATIONALE: There has been little study of the very early time course of the smoking withdrawal syndrome, despite its relevance to the maintenance of both smoking and postcessation abstinence. The literature contains a range of estimates about the early appearance of withdrawal symptoms, but without reference to empirical data. OBJECTIVES: The study aim was to conduct a comprehensive, multimodal assessment of the early time course of the symptoms associated with smoking withdrawal among cigarette smokers. METHODS: Participants were 50 smokers randomly assigned to either abstain or smoke at their own pace during 4 h in the laboratory. Dependent measures included resting heart rate, sustained attention (Rapid Visual Information Processing task; RVIP), selective attention to smoking stimuli (an emotional Stroop task), and self-report (Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scale; WSWS). After baseline assessment, participants were assigned to the two conditions and the dependent measures were collected every 30 min. RESULTS: Generalized estimating equations revealed that abstaining participants displayed greater withdrawal than smoking participants on all measures with the exception of the Stroop task. Statistically significant differences in withdrawal were found within 60 min on heart rate, within 30 min on the RVIP, and between 30 and 180 min postcessation on the various subscales of the WSWS. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide the first evidence of the early time course of smoking withdrawal symptoms, although further research is needed to distinguish withdrawal from drug offset effects. Implications for understanding the maintenance of daily smoking and for the treatment of tobacco dependence are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The use of GEE for analyzing longitudinal binomial data: a primer using data from a tobacco intervention.

Longitudinal study designs in addictive behaviors research are common as researchers have focused increasingly on how various explanatory variables affect responses over time. In particular, such designs are used in intervention studies that have multiple follow-up points. These designs typically involve repeated measurement of participants' responses, and thus correlation within each participant is expected. Correct inferences can only be obtained by taking into account this within-participant correlation between repeated measurements, which can complicate the analysis of longitudinal data. In recent years, generalized estimating equations (GEE) has become a standard method for analyzing non-normal longitudinal data, yet it often is not utilized by addiction researchers. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the GEE approach for analyzing correlated binary data for behavioral researchers, using data from an intervention study on the prevention of relapse to tobacco smoking.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Adapting smoking relapse-prevention materials for pregnant and postpartum women: formative research.

OBJECTIVE: To decrease smoking relapse among pregnant and postpartum women by adapting existing, validated relapse-prevention materials to meet the unique needs of pregnant and postpartum women. METHODS: A series of semi-structured interviews and learner verification activities were conducted with pregnant abstinent, postpartum abstinent, and postpartum relapsed women. Results were used to create new relapse-prevention materials, specific to the needs of pregnant and postpartum women, which are currently being used in a randomized clinical trial. RESULTS: Findings are consistent with the recurrent themes in the literature regarding smoking cessation among pregnant and postpartum women and revealed exceptional needs for coping and stress reduction strategies related to remaining abstinent postpartum. Conflict levels were also high in areas of identity, social support, and reasons for quitting. CONCLUSION: By interviewing women about their cessation related needs, the current study was able to produce smoking relapse-prevention materials specific to this population. Having pregnant and postpartum women review the modified program materials before starting the clinical trial enhanced the quality, dependability, and validity of the materials. We await the results of the clinical trial to determine if this intervention is indeed more efficacious than previous attempts to intervene with this population.

Female↗
PubMed2005

Smoking expectancy associates among college smokers.

Although it has been suggested that implicit expectancies influence smoking and other addictive behaviors, there is little direct evidence to support this notion. This study offers the first step in exploring implicit expectancy operation in cigarette smoking. Ninety-nine college smokers completed the sentence, "Smoking makes one_____." with as many words as possible within 30 s, developing a list of expectancy associates. The results of the sentence completion task were positively correlated with an explicit measure of smoking-related expectancies. Future studies will be able to use the expectancy associates developed by this study to employ implicit memory tasks and further the understanding of the role of smoking-related expectancies.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Tailored interventions for motivating smoking cessation: using placebo tailoring to examine the influence of expectancies and personalization.

The present study examined mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of tailored interventions for motivating smoking cessation. The study used a placebo-tailoring design to test whether the efficacy of tailoring was due, in part, to personalized features in addition to the theoretically based content. Two hundred forty adult smokers were randomized to 1 of 3 conditions: standard booklet, minimally personalized booklet, or extensively personalized booklet. The interventions varied in their degree of ostensible tailoring, yet the actual smoking-related content of the booklets was identical. A dose-response relationship was hypothesized, with the greatest apparent tailoring producing the most positive outcomes. This pattern was found for evaluation of the booklets, with trends for readiness to change and self-efficacy increases. Moreover, as hypothesized, the effect of the interventions on readiness was moderated by participants' expectancies about tailoring.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

College-student smoking: an initial test of an experiential dissonance-enhancing intervention.

This study was designed as an initial test of whether an experiential learning intervention, based on cognitive dissonance theory, would increase college-student smokers' intentions to quit smoking. One hundred forty-four college smokers were asked to prepare educational videos about (1) the risks of smoking or (2) the feasibility of quitting (in a 2 x 2 factorial design). Main effects for the experimental manipulations were not found. However, an interaction suggested that intentions to quit smoking were increased by either manipulation, but that the effects were not additive. In addition, risk perceptions were increased by the health-risk manipulation alone, but not when quitting feasibility was also targeted. As predicted, smoking history and smoking-related expectancies were both correlated with magnitude of dissonance. Moreover, dissonance magnitude was associated with the reported use of dissonance-reducing strategies, including intending to quit smoking and believing that tobacco use was out of their control due to nicotine addiction. The findings from this initial analogue study suggest that attitudes and intentions to quit smoking can be influenced by a brief experiential intervention.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a complementary health intervention: the case of smoking relapse prevention.

OBJECTIVES: We assess the cost-effectiveness of smoking relapse prevention interventions designed to keep quitters from resuming the use of cigarettes. Because relapse prevention is complementary to smoking cessation efforts, the appropriate test of its cost-effectiveness is whether it reduces the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of smoking cessation. The major goal of the study is to carry out such a test. METHODS: Data from a randomized trial that ascertained the effectiveness of alternative modes of smoking relapse prevention are combined with ICER estimates of smoking cessation to assess whether relapse prevention is cost-effective. RESULTS: The trial produced convincing evidence that relapse prevention yields statistically significant reductions in the proportion of quitters who are smoking at 24 months postquit. The intervention effects are substantial enough to raise the denominator terms of the smoking cessation ICER and, thereby, offset the amount relapse prevention adds to cost numerator terms. In this sense, smoking relapse prevention tends to pay for itself. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking relapse prevention is a highly cost-effective addition to current efforts to curb cigarette consumption. Complementary health interventions of this sort should be assessed by different methods than those commonly found in the cost-effectiveness literature.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Motivational interviewing with personalized feedback: a brief intervention for motivating smokers with schizophrenia to seek treatment for tobacco dependence.

Individuals with schizophrenia have a much higher prevalence of tobacco smoking, a lower cessation rate, and a higher incidence of tobacco-related diseases than the general population. The initial challenge has been to motivate these individuals to quit smoking. This study tested whether motivational interviewing is effective in motivating smokers with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder to seek tobacco dependence treatment. Participants (N = 78) were randomly assigned to receive a 1-session motivational interviewing (MI) intervention, standard psychoeducational counseling, or advice only. As hypothesized, a greater proportion of participants receiving the MI intervention contacted a tobacco dependence treatment provider (32%, 11%, and 0%, respectively) and attended the 1st session of counseling (28%, 9%. and 0%) by the 1-month follow-up as compared with those receiving comparison interventions.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a minimal intervention to prevent smoking relapse: dismantling the effects of amount of content versus contact.

Relapse prevention remains a major challenge to smoking cessation efforts. T. H. Brandon, B. N. Collins, L. M. Juliano, and A. B. Lazev (2000) found that a series of 8 empirically based relapse-prevention booklets mailed to ex-smokers over 1 year significantly reduced relapse. This study dismantled 2 components of that intervention: the amount of content (number of booklets) and the frequency of contact. Content and contact were crossed in a 2 X 2 factorial design. The criteria of at least 1 week of abstinence at baseline was met by 431 participants, 75%-85% of whom returned 12-, 18-, and 24-month follow-up questionnaires. Eight booklets produced consistently higher point-prevalence abstinence rates than did a single booklet, but frequency of contact did not affect outcome. Moreover, the high-content interventions were highly cost-effective.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2004

Smokers' expectancies for nicotine replacement therapy vs. cigarettes.

Smokers (N=188) recruited from the local community completed a questionnaire that measured expected outcomes of using cigarettes, nicotine gum, nicotine patch, and nicotine nasal spray. Expectancy questions relating to negative affect, craving, weight, and health risks were derived from the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire-Adult. As predicted, smokers held much greater expectancies that cigarettes help control negative affect, craving, and weight relative to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). All NRT products were expected to cause fewer health risks than cigarette smoking. As predicted, smokers held strong negative affect reduction expectancies for cigarette smoking. For NRT, although still relatively low, craving reduction was the strongest expectancy. Individuals who had experience using the nicotine patch had greater positive expectancies for NRT. Greater positive expectancies for NRT were correlated with more immediate plans to quit smoking. In summary, cigarette smokers' positive expectancies about cigarettes do not appear to generalize to NRT products, which may limit their use and effectiveness.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed2004

Reducing risk in smokers.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For smokers who want to quit, nicotine replacement therapy and bupropion are frequently recommended. Currently, disagreement surrounds the extent of risk reduction from quitting, the consequences of the change of nicotine replacement therapy to over-the-counter status, and the safety and efficacy of new tobacco products being marketed by tobacco companies. This article reviews the current evidence relevant to these and other developments in smoking interventions and describes the most effective strategies that smokers can use to reduce their risk. RECENT FINDINGS: Although it may take approximately 10 to 30 years of abstinence for former smokers' risk of lung cancer to reach that of never smokers, quitting at any time is substantially less risky than continuing to smoke. Quitting after diagnosis also prolongs survival. Bupropion and nicotine replacement therapy are effective pharmacotherapies, doubling quit rates compared with self-quitting. However, many users of over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy are using it inappropriately. More research is needed to determine the long-term health effects of modified tobacco products and their efficacy in helping smokers quit. Switching to "low tar" filter cigarettes to reduce lung cancer risk, however, is clearly ineffective. The most effective interventions for quitting continue to be a combination of behavioral and pharmacologic approaches. SUMMARY: Health care practitioners should encourage all smokers to attempt cessation and emphasize pharmacotherapy as an important aid to quitting. Professionals who educate patients on the appropriate use of pharmacotherapy and follow-up on smokers' attempts to quit will help reduce the societal burden and personal risks of smoking.

Bupropion↗
PubMed2004

Cognitive and social learning models of drug dependence: implications for the assessment of tobacco dependence in adolescents.

This paper is part of a series that has the goal of identifying potential approaches toward developing new instruments for assessing tobacco dependence among adolescents. The fundamental assumption underlying the series is that contemporary theories of drug dependence offer a rich source of opportunities for the development of theoretically based assessment tools. The present paper focuses on cognitive and social-learning models of drug dependence and the implications of these models for novel assessment instruments. In particular, the paper focuses on Mark Goldman's model of drug expectancies, Albert Bandura's model of self-efficacy, Thomas Wills's model of stress and coping and Stephen Tiffany's cognitive-processing model of drug urges and cravings. In addition to traditional self-report measures, naturalistic and laboratory-based assessments are identified that may yield information relevant to multi-dimensional measurement of tobacco dependence.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

Motivational influences on cigarette smoking.

Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity and a particularly common and intractable addictive disorder. Research shows that nicotine is a sine qua non of tobacco addiction and that it produces the hallmark effects of addictive drugs: sensitization, tolerance, physical dependence, and euphoria/elation. Research on the development of smoking reveals that although smoking prevalence has declined from a peak in the mid-1990s, close to 30% of twelfth graders still smoke. Smoking in adolescents is related to development of physical dependence, ethnicity, impulsivity, affective disorder, and peer influences. However, which of these exerts the greatest causal effects is unknown, and their influence no doubt varies across individuals and across development. Once dependence on tobacco smoking is established, evidence suggests that tobacco motivation is strongly influenced by a reduction in withdrawal symptoms, an expectation of stress reduction, and conditioned reinforcement. Nicotine motivation may also be influenced by modulation in stimulus incentive value.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Altering risk in patients who smoke.

Because of the inherent difficulty of quitting smoking and the enormous health and societal burden of smoking, a multitude of interventions have been developed and tested for their efficacy in sustaining abstinence in smokers. Although most smokers' attempts to quit on their own end in failure, with 12-month abstinence rates as low as 5.7%, several psychosocial and pharmacological interventions have been noted for substantially increasing, even doubling or tripling abstinence rates. Given the substantial costs of treating illnesses caused by smoking, even a 1% increase in abstinence rates is notable for its public health benefit. Moreover, research has indicated that it may take the majority of smokers several attempts at quitting before total continuous abstinence is achieved. Thus any quit attempt should be construed as a step forward in the direction of sustained abstinence. The relative ease with which clinician-initiated effective treatments can be implemented. and evidence that many smokers would like to stop smoking and look to health-care practitioners for guidance and motivation, suggest that pulmonary medicine specialists can have a substantial impact on morbidity and mortality associated with smoking.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2003

Pretreatment task persistence predicts smoking cessation outcome.

R. Eisenberger's (1992) learned industriousness theory states that individuals display differing degrees of persistence depending on their history of reinforcement for effortful behavior. These differences may influence the development, maintenance, and cessation of addictive behaviors. In cross-sectional studies, E. P. Quinn, T. H. Brandon, and A. L. Copeland (1996) found that cigarette smokers were less persistent than nonsmokers, and R. A. Brown, C. W. Lejuez, C. W. Kahler, and D. R. Strong (2002) found that smokers who had previously abstained for 3 months were more persistent than those who had never quit. The present study extended these findings by using a prospective design. A pretreatment measure of task persistence (mirror tracing) completed by 144 smokers predicted sustained abstinence throughout 12 months of follow-up. Moreover, persistence predicted outcome independent of other significant predictors: gender, nicotine dependence, negative affect, and self-efficacy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The increasing recalcitrance of smokers in clinical trials II: Pharmacotherapy trials.

Irvin and Brandon (Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2, 79-84, 2000) reported a significant decline in reported abstinence rates between 1977 and 1996 from clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatments based on coping skills training. The present study extends that approach to the analysis of pharmacotherapy trials. A literature search identified 59 studies, published between 1983 and 2000 and conducted in the U.S., that reported post-cessation abstinence rates after treatment with nicotine gum, nicotine patch or any type of placebo medication. Across all three types of treatment conditions and four post-cessation assessment points, negative correlations between publication year and abstinence rates were found. The strongest pattern of negative correlations was found for the placebo conditions. However, the correlations for placebo conditions could be accounted for by the simultaneous shift toward treatments offered in individual rather than group format. No other methodological or subject variable appeared to mediate the declining outcomes. Findings are discussed with respect to the theory that the population of remaining smokers is becoming progressively more dependent and difficult to treat.

Adaptation, Psychological↗