Kirsten A. Johnson

Relations Between Anxiety Sensitivity, Distress Tolerance, and Fear Reactivity to Bodily Sensations to Coping and Conformity Marijuana Use Motives Among Young Adult Marijuana Users

The present investigation examines anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and fear reactivity to bodily sensations in relation to Coping and Conformity marijuana use motives among a sample of young adult marijuana users (n = 135; 46.7% women; Mage = 20.45, SD = 5.0). After controlling for current marijuana use frequency (past 30 days), daily cigarette smoking rate, average volume of alcohol used over the past year, negative affectivity, and other marijuana use motives, anxiety sensitivity was significantly and uniquely associated with Coping and Conformity motives for marijuana use. Distress tolerance evidenced significant and unique incremental relations to Coping motives, whereas fear reactivity to bodily sensations was unrelated to any marijuana use motive. These results provide novel information related to the role of emotional sensitivity and tolerance factors as they pertain to specific types of motives for marijuana use among young adults.

Mindfulness-based acceptance and posttraumatic stress symptoms among trauma-exposed adults without axis I psychopathology

The present investigation examined the incremental predictive validity of mindfulness-based processes, indexed by the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, in relation to posttraumatic stress symptom severity among individuals without any axis I psychopathology. Participants included 239 adults who endorsed exposure to traumatic life events. Results indicated that the Accepting without Judgment subscale was significantly incrementally associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms; effects were above and beyond the variance accounted for by negative affectivity and number of trauma types experienced. The Acting with Awareness subscale was incrementally associated with only posttraumatic stress-relevant re-experiencing symptoms; and no other mindfulness factors were related to the dependent measures. Findings are discussed in relation to extant empirical and theoretical work relevant to mindfulness and posttraumatic stress.

Exploring the Mediational Role of Coping Motives for Marijuana Use in Terms of the Relation between Anxiety Sensitivity and Marijuana Dependence

This study evaluated the prediction that coping motives for marijuana use would mediate the relation between anxiety sensitivity and a marijuana dependence diagnosis after controlling for other co-occurring marijuana use motives. Participants were 136 current marijuana users (47.1% women; M(age)= 21.9, SD = 7.2). Results were consistent with a mediational effect, with the relation between anxiety sensitivity and marijuana dependence being explained by the addition of coping motives into the model. These results provide novel information related to the putative explanatory role of coping motives for marijuana use in the relation between anxiety sensitivity and marijuana dependence.

Prospective Evaluation of the Effects of Anxiety Sensitivity and State Anxiety in Predicting Acute Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms During Smoking Cessation

The current investigation explored the main and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and state anxiety in predicting acute nicotine withdrawal symptoms experienced during the initial 14 days of smoking cessation. Participants included 123 adult daily smokers (84 women; Mage = 45.93 years, SD = 10.34) undergoing psychosocial-pharmacological cessation treatment. Results indicated that after controlling for the effects of participant sex and nicotine dependence, state anxiety but not AS significantly predicted initial levels of nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Results also demonstrated that both state anxiety and AS were significantly related to the change in nicotine withdrawal symptoms over time. Finally, our results revealed a significant interaction between AS and state anxiety. Specifically, higher levels of AS were associated with a stronger relation between state anxiety and nicotine withdrawal symptoms experienced during the cessation attempt. Results suggest that among high AS persons, state anxiety may be more relevant, compared to those low in AS, in regard to experiencing withdrawal symptoms as more intense during the early phases of quitting.

Panic attack history and anxiety sensitivity in relation to cognitive-based smoking processes among treatment-seeking daily smokers.

INTRODUCTION Empirical research has found that panic attacks are related to increased risk of more severe nicotine withdrawal and poor cessation outcome. Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety and related sensations) has similarly been found to be related to an increased risk of acute nicotine withdrawal and poorer cessation outcome. However, research has yet to examine the relative contributions of panic attacks and AS in terms of cognitive-based smoking processes (e.g., negative reinforcement smoking expectancies, addictive and negative affect-based reduction smoking motives, barriers to cessation, problem symptoms experienced while quitting). METHOD Participants (n = 242; 57.4% male; M (age) = 38.1) were daily smokers recruited as a part of a larger randomized control trial for smoking cessation. It was hypothesized that both panic attacks and AS would uniquely and independently predict the studied cognitive-based smoking processes. RESULTS As hypothesized, AS was uniquely and positively associated with all smoking processes after controlling for average number of cigarettes smoked per day, current Axis I diagnosis, and participant sex. However, panic attack history was only significantly related to problem symptoms experienced while quitting smoking. CONCLUSIONS Although past research has demonstrated significant associations between panic attacks and certain aspects of cigarette smoking (e.g., severity of nicotine withdrawal; lower abstinence rates, and negative affect reduction motives), the present findings suggest that AS may be more relevant to understanding beliefs about and motives for smoking behavior as well as perceptions of cessation-related difficulties.

Linkages between cigarette smoking outcome expectancies and negative emotional vulnerability

The present investigation examined whether smoking outcome expectancies, as measured by the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ; [Brandon, T.H., & Baker, T.B., (1991). The Smoking Consequences Questionnaire: The subjective expected utility of smoking in college students. Psychological Assessment, 3, 484-491.]), were incrementally related to emotional vulnerability factors among an adult sample of 202 daily cigarette smokers (44.6% women; M(age)=23.78 years, SD=9.69 years). After controlling for cigarettes smoked/day, past 30-day marijuana use, current alcohol consumption, and coping style, negative reinforcement/negative affect reduction outcome expectancies were significantly associated with greater levels of negative affectivity, emotional dysregulation, and anxiety sensitivity. The observed effects for negative reinforcement/negative affect reduction also were independent of shared variance with other outcome expectancies. Negative personal consequences outcome expectancies were significantly and incrementally related to anxiety sensitivity, but not negative affectivity or emotional dysregulation. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of negative reinforcement/negative affect reduction smoking outcome expectancies and clinically-relevant negative emotional vulnerability for better understanding cigarette smoking-negative mood problems.

Anxiety sensitivity and panic reactivity to bodily sensations: relation to quit-day (acute) nicotine withdrawal symptom severity among daily smokers making a self-guided quit attempt.

The current investigation explored the main and interactive effects of panic attacks in response to laboratory-induced bodily sensations and anxiety sensitivity in predicting acute nicotine withdrawal symptoms among daily smokers making a self-guided quit attempt. Participants were 99 daily smokers (58% women; M(age) = 28.4 years, SD = 11.7) who completed a battery of questionnaires, a voluntary hyperventilation challenge, and a measure of nicotine withdrawal symptoms 12 hr after making a self-guided quit attempt. Results indicated that the interaction of anxiety sensitivity and panic responsivity to the challenge predicted quit-day nicotine withdrawal symptom severity above and beyond the main effects (p < .05). The form of the interaction indicated that the relationship between postchallenge panic attack status and acute nicotine withdrawal was more robust among individuals who were low in anxiety sensitivity. Individuals who did not experience a panic attack posthyperventilation who were also low in anxiety sensitivity reported the lowest levels of nicotine withdrawal. Results suggest that anxiety sensitivity may be less relevant with regard to acute nicotine withdrawal severity among individuals with panic-related problems.

Anxiety Sensitivity and Cognitive-Based Smoking Processes: Testing the Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation Among Treatment-Seeking Daily Smokers

The current study investigated whether emotion dysregulation (difficulties in the self-regulation of affective states) mediated relationships between anxiety sensitivity (fear of anxiety and related sensations) and cognitive-based smoking processes. Participants (n = 197; 57.5% male; mean age = 38.0 years) were daily smokers recruited as part of a randomized control trial for smoking cessation. Anxiety sensitivity was uniquely associated with all smoking processes. Moreover, emotion dysregulation significantly mediated relationships between anxiety sensitivity and the smoking processes. Findings suggest that emotion dysregulation is an important construct to consider in relationships between anxiety sensitivity and cognitive-based smoking processes among adult treatment-seeking smokers.

Marijuana use and panic psychopathology among a representative sample of adults.

This study examined the relations between marijuana use and panic attacks and panic disorder using a large representative survey of adults (N = 5,672; 53% women; M(age) = 45.05 years, SD = 17.9) conducted in the United States (Kessler et al., 2004). After adjusting for sociodemographic variables (age, marital status, income, education, race, and sex) and the presence of a lifetime substance use disorder, lifetime marijuana use was significantly associated with increased odds of a lifetime panic attack history. Lifetime marijuana use also was significantly associated with an increased risk of current (past-year) panic attacks; however, this relation was not significant when controlling for nicotine dependence. Lifetime marijuana use was significantly associated with increased odds of a lifetime diagnosis of panic disorder as well as a current (past-year) diagnosis of panic disorder. Current (past-year) marijuana use was significantly associated with both lifetime and current panic attacks, but not current or lifetime panic disorder. Results are discussed in relation to the novel information they offer in regard to understanding the putative marijuana use-panic psychopathology association(s).

Personality disorders and cigarette smoking among adults in the United States.

INTRODUCTION There is a paucity of empirical information pertaining to the association between personality disorders and cigarette smoking. The present study examined whether, and to what degree, personality disorders are associated with cigarette smoking; investigated the specificity of any observed smoking-personality disorder association; and the role of mood/anxiety disorders, substance use, and nicotine dependence in those relations. METHODS Data were drawn from the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a nationally representative sample of 43,083 adults in the United States. RESULTS Results indicated a substantial percentage of those with personality disorders are nicotine dependent. Interestingly, the association between dependent, avoidant, histrionic, schizoid and paranoid personality disorders as well as former dependent smoking was partially explained by co-occurring mood/anxiety disorders, and adjusting for such clinical conditions appeared to generally attenuate the strength of many other associations. Finally, the association between personality disorders and smoking appears to differ by specific personality disorder, with some of the strongest relations being evident for antisocial personality disorder. DISCUSSION These novel empirical findings are discussed in relation to the relevance of cigarette smoking among those with personality disorders.