With the exception of craving, symptom suppression has not been reliably related to abstinence success. Evidence for relapse prevention effects of therapies that extend beyond the initial few postquit weeks is sparse. In order to examine these relapse prevention effects, it is useful to start with a group of uniformly abstinent subjects who are then randomly assigned to experimental and control therapies. One such study showed that smokers who received behavior therapy had slower rates of relapse compared with those who received no treatment. The specific role of relapse prevention skills training in slowing relapse is unclear.
Compliance is important to ensure exposure to adequate amounts and durations of therapy components.
Including compliance measures in treatment outcome research would help to address this issue. Early Abstinence . For example, pharmacotherapy could attenuate priming effects of nicotine exposure while behavior therapy counteracted the abstinence violation effect. An increased focus on dynamics of early postquit weeks would be useful. Relapse Prevention .