UNCORRECTED PROOFDrug and Alcohol Dependence xxx (2003) xxx–xxxShort communication3Smoking cessation efforts among substance abusing adolescents 4Mark G. Myers a,∗ , Laura MacPherson b 5aDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychology Service, 116B, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, 3350 La Jolla Village Drive University of California,San Diego, CA 92161, USA67bSan Diego State University/University of California, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA 92122, USA 8Received 2 April 2003; received in revised form 8 September 2003; accepted 29 September 2003 9Abstract 10Availableresearchdemonstratesthatsubstanceabusingyouthareheavycigarettesmokersforwhomthebehaviorpersistsintoadulthood.Assuch this population represents an important target for intervention. In order to inform treatment design, the present paper described cessationefforts,includingmotivesandmethodsforquitting,inasampleofcigarettesmokingadolescentswhoreceivedinpatientoroutpatienttreatmentfor substance abuse. The 183 participants were on average 16.2 years old, 45% were females, and 72% were white. Consistent with studiesof community and high risk youth samples, the majority of participants had previously attempted cessation, yet reported little success inmaintaining abstinence. Health emerged as a frequently endorsed motive for cessation and stopping abruptly (cold turkey) was the mostcommonly reported strategy for quitting.11121314151617© 2003 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. 18Keywords: Adolescents; Smoking cessation; Substance abuse 191. Introduction 20Recent years have seen increasing attention to the issue 21of adolescent smoking cessation, with a growing number of 22studies examining interventions and factors related to ces- 23sation. Existing studies demonstrate that substance abusing 24adolescents smoke at substantially higher rates than youth 25in the general population (Upadhyaya et al., 2002; Myers 26and Brown, 1994), have a high rate of smoking persistence 27(Myers and Brown, 1997), and evidence tobacco-related 28health consequences (Myers and Brown, 1994). These data 29highlight the importance of smoking cessation treatment for 30this population. 31To date, no published reports have described naturalistic 32smoking cessation efforts among clinical samples of sub- 33stanceabusingyouth.Researchwithgeneralpopulationsam- 34ples indicates that more than half of adolescent smokers re- 35port intentions to quit smoking and a majority report prior 36cessation attempts (Burt and Peterson, 1998; Ershler et al., 371989; Stanton et al., 1996; Sussman et al., 1998b). However, 38data on the duration of adolescent abstinence following ces- 39∗Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-858-642-3436;fax: +1-858-552-7414.E-mail address: mgmyers@ucsd.edu (M.G. Myers).sation attempts demonstrate a frequent and rapid return to 40smoking (Burt and Peterson, 1998; Pierce et al., 1998; Zhu 41et al., 1999). Thus, it appears that a majority of adolescent 42smokers desire to quit smoking and engage in cessation at- 43tempts, yet experience little success. Whether these patterns 44hold among adolescent substance abusers is currently un- 45known. 46Despiterecentattentiontotheissueofadolescentsmoking 47cessation (Henningf i eld et al., 2000), little is known regard- 48ing features of smoking cessation efforts, such as motives 49for cessation and methods of quitting, among high risk youth 50or adolescents in general. A few published studies have ex- 51amined adolescents’ motives or reasons for wanting to quit 52smoking. Health concerns were most consistently endorsed 53as reasons for quitting across all studies reviewed (Stone and 54Kristeller, 1992; Dozois et al., 1995; Sussman et al., 1998a; 55Stanton et al., 1996; Riedel et al., 2002). Other reported mo- 56tives included pressure from peers, expense (Sussman et al., 571998a), concern about being addicted (Stone and Kristeller, 581992), and pressure from family members (Riedel et al., 592002). 60Few studies have addressed methods employed during 61adolescent efforts at smoking cessation. In a focus group 62study (Balch, 1998), adolescent participants identif i ed quit- 63ting“coldturkey”(stoppingabruptly),gradualreductionand 641 0376-8716/$ – see front matter © 2003 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.2 doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2003.09.008DAD 2293 1–5
