Exercise helps kick the smoking habit
Exercise can help anxious people quit their smoking habit, says psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
People with high anxiety smoke cigarettes to cope with stress, making it harder to quit. “Anxiety and depressive symptoms and syndromes are the most prevalent psychiatric conditions in the general population and are remarkably comorbid with smoking,” said psychology professor Jasper Smits, lead author of the study. “Those with high-anxiety sensitivity experience greater problems with nicotine withdrawal, which is a strong predictor of lapse and subsequent relapse.”
Smits’ research, however, suggests that exercise can reduce anxiety sensitivity and depressive symptoms, doubling the chances of cessation for these adults.
Participants were daily smokers who were screened for anxiety sensitivity and randomly assigned to a 15-week intervention that included thrice weekly exercise or wellness education sessions in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy and optional nicotine replacement therapy patches.
Exercise sessions required 25-minutes of “vigorous” work, and wellness education sessions included healthy life-style discussions and weekly wellness goals.
At the end of treatment, 26 percent of those who exercised successfully abstained from smoking, and 12 percent who attended wellness sessions abstained. After six months, 23 percent of the exercise group abstained, and 10 percent of the wellness education group continued to abstain
The article, “The efficacy of vigorous-intensity exercise as an aid to smoking cessation in adults with high anxiety sensitivity: A randomized controlled trial,” is available online and in the forthcoming April 2016 print edition of Psychosomatic Medicine.
