Abstract:

Objective: Cigarette smoking is one of the most important health problems today. Nicotine dependence and difficulty to cessate smoking are assumed to be originating both from psychopharmacological effects of nicotine and genetic and environmental factors. The other possible factor which mediates to keep on smoking behavior may be personality traits. Aims: To find out the associations between temperament and character traits and nicotine dependence levels among the adult outpatients presented to a smoking cessation clinic at a training and education hospital and also to examine their effects on smoking cessation behavior. Methods: In this study, 262 consecutive nicotine dependent patients between 18-60 years of age were recruited using the relevant section of SCID for DSM-IV on a voluntary basis. The subjects were then asked to complete self-report questionnaires and participated in the nonpharmacological smoking cessation program at least during 12-16 weeks follow-up period. Results: Mean age of patients who quit smoking (non-smokers) at the end was significantly higher than that of smokers (p<0.05). There were no difference between cigarettes consumed (yearly or daily) and the smoking status. Fagerstrom nicotine dependence test values of patients who quit smoking was significantly lower than that of smoking group (p<0.05). There was statistically significant correlation between nicotine dependence scores and neuroticism subscale scores of Eysenck personality questionnaire (p<0.05). Conclusions: Designing more specific psychological measurements and evaluation tools in order to assess individuals with nicotine dependency in the context of smoking patterns and levels of dependency may be useful for the development of future treatment approaches concerning etiology.

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