Psychological Characteristics in Patients during Treatment for Tobacco Dependence

BACKGROUND Few studies compare mood in tobacco cessation patients with mood in continuing smokers and then estimate the effects of a tobacco cessation program according to status of mood. We investigated whether mood in patients (n = 7) dependent on tobacco improved through the standard Japanese 12-week program for smoking cessation comparing smokers (n = 11) and nonsmokers (n = 16). METHODS A brief Japanese version of the short profile of mood states (POMS) was used in this study. The subscale includes 5 negative mood factors (tension-anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, fatigue and confusion-bewilderment) and positive mood factors (vigor-activity). We also examined expiratory CO concentration (ppm), percentage of COHb, urinary nicotine and its metabolite concentration, Brinkman index, and tobacco dependence score (TDS) for both smoking cessation group and smokers group. RESULTS All the short profiles for mood state points in nonsmokers were below 50. Two of TDS items in smoking cessation patients were significantly higher in percentage than those in smokers. Brinkman indices and expiratory CO concentration were significantly higher in smoking cessation patients than those in smokers. The rate of improvement in tension-anxiety points in smoking cessation patients was significantly higher than that in smokers. CONCLUSION Counseling according to the standard program in the treatment of tobacco dependence may be an effective procedure to improve mood status.