Does Exposure to Habitual Smoking Contexts Before Smoking Cessation Reduce Relapse? Results From a Pilot Study

A variety of cues have been proven to elicit reactivity in nicotine-dependent indi-viduals. Since such reactivity has been shown to form a source of relapse, treatments aim at extinguishing this reactivity. Yet, typically, in cue-exposure treatments a very limited range of relevant stimuli is used, usually focusing only on proximal stimuli (e.g., a cigarette) rather than on contextual cues that trigger craving (e.g., a bar). The restriction to proximal cues may be one of the reasons for the low efficacy of cue-exposure treatments. In the current pilot study (N = 88), we aimed to evaluate the effect on relapse rates of exposure to contextual cues prior to quitting smoking, by varying the degree of exposure/extinction to habitual smoking contexts prior to quitting between groups. Results suggest that context exposure prior to smoking ces-sation indeed reduces relapse. However, since dropout rates were high, this finding needs replication with a larger sample. ■ Keywords: smoking cessation, context exposure, renewal, craving Cue reactivity, that is, drug-related cues eliciting subjective, physiological and/or behavioural reactions that can be conceptualised as conditioned responses, i