Pain-related Anxiety and Smoking Outcomes: The Explanatory Role of Dysphoria

Scientific evidence suggests that pain-related anxiety may contribute to the maintenance of tobacco addiction among smokers with varying levels of pain. Yet, no work has investigated the relation between pain-related anxiety and cognitive-based smoking processes within a mechanistic model. Dysphoria may explain the relation between pain-related anxiety and smoking outcomes, as it is a construct that relates to pain and smoking outcomes. Thus, the current study examined the explanatory role of dysphoria in the relation between pain-related anxiety and three clinically significant smoking outcomes: perceived barriers to cessation, negative affect reduction motives, and negative mood abstinence expectancies. Participants included 101 (Mage = 32.74 years, SD = 13.60; 35.6% female) adult smokers. Results indicated that pain-related anxiety had an indirect effect on all dependent variables through dysphoria. The current findings provide evidence that dysphoria may serve to maintain maladaptive smoking processes in smokers with pain-related anxiety. Keywords: Pain, Pain-Related Anxiety, Dysphoria, Smoking, Tobacco