Unstuck in time: episodic future thinking reduces delay discounting and cigarette smoking.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Delay discounting, or the devaluation of delayed outcomes, appears to play an etiological role in tobacco and other substance-use disorders.

Objectives

No human studies to our knowledge have been designed to examine whether experimental reductions in delay discounting produce concomitant reduction in drug use.

Methods

Using methods from prior studies on delay discounting and obesity, we examined the effects of episodic future thinking (EFT; a form of mental prospection) on delay discounting and cigarette self-administration in smokers.

Results

Consistent with prior data, EFT significantly reduced both delay discounting (Cohen's d effect size = 0.65) and the number of cigarette puffs earned in a cigarette self-administration task (d = 0.58).

Conclus

SUBMITTER: Stein JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9812225 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature