ADDRESSING WOMENS CONCERNS ABOUT WEIGHT-GAIN DUE TO SMOKING CESSATION

Specific concerns about weight gain following smoking cessation inhibi t attempts to quit smoking, especially in women. However, adjunct inte rventions to prevent weight gain after cessation have generally been s uccessful only in attenuating, rather than preventing, weight gain. Mo re aggressive weight control adjuncts may be necessary to prevent cess ation-induced weight gain. On the other hand, weight control programs have not been found to improve long-term smoking abstinence and, in fa ct, may actually impede abstinence, necessitating a search for alterna tive approaches to addressing weight concerns. Since the typical amoun t of weight gain is essentially trivial from a health standpoint, part icularly when compared with the health benefits of quitting smoking, t he most appropriate clinical strategy may be to combat the weight conc erns themselves rather than the weight gain. A second alternative appr oach is to focus all treatment efforts on smoking cessation alone, to avoid placing excessive burdens on participants resulting from attempt ing simultaneous changes in multiple health behaviors (i.e., smoking a nd those related to weight). The rationales for these three clinical a pproaches to addressing concerns about weight gain-more effective weig ht control, direct reduction in weight concerns by cognitive-behaviora l treatment and smoking cessation only-are presented followed by descr iptions of the adjunct treatments based on these approaches currently being evaluated in a clinical outcome study with women trying to quit smoking. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.