THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A HISTORY OF DEPRESSION AND ADHERENCE TO A MULTICOMPONENT SMOKING-CESSATION PROGRAM

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a history of depres sion in female smokers (age 18-65) who did not self-report any current depression was associated with adherence to a multisession, multicomp onent smoking-cessation program. Participants in a 13-week cognitive-b ehavioral group program plus random assignment to nicotine gum, appeti te suppressant gum, or placebo chewing gum were grouped by depressive- history and compared on attendance, average expired carbon monoxide af ter planned cessation, and number of pieces of gum chewed. No signific ant differences between the depressive history (yes/no) subgroups were found on any of the three measures of adherence. The power to detect a significant difference (alpha = 0.05) was calculated to be 0.89. Gro up cognitive-behavioral treatment appears to be the basis of an effect ive smoking-cessation program for women with a history of depression w ho are not currently depressed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.