Affective Determinants of Smoking
Cigarette smoking remains a leading preventable cause of death and disease. Prominent drug motivation models posit that affective processes are important drivers of continued and renewed tobacco use. Negative affect and anhedonia are core components of nicotine withdrawal that are thought to motivate smoking and prompt smoking relapse. Individual differences in affective processing, such as anhedonia, anxiety sensitivity, distress intolerance, and emotion dysregulation enhance risk for tobacco use and moderate affect–smoking relations. The strength of affect–smoking relations seems to depend on methodological and contextual factors in important ways. Extant and developing treatments targeting affective processes show promise as tobacco cessation interventions. Theoretical models and empirical evidence support the importance of affective processes in smoking and suggest potential affect-focused interventions.