Violent assault, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. Risk factors for cigarette use among adult women.
Trauma and depression almost double the odds that a woman smokes, so screen both areas.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bauman et al. (1996) asked adult women about past assault, PTSD, and depression.
They also asked who smoked.
The goal was to see if trauma and mood problems raise the odds of smoking.
What they found
Women who had been assaulted were about twice as likely to smoke.
The same was true for women with PTSD or depression.
The effects were real but small.
How this fits with other research
Matson et al. (2009) found college students who drink to cope also use more alcohol.
Both papers show people use substances to quiet bad feelings.
Buskist et al. (1988) saw that strong social support cut PTSD in vets.
A et al. did not test support, so the papers do not clash; they simply ask different questions.
Together they hint that boosting support might lower both PTSD and smoking.
Why it matters
If a client smokes, ask about trauma and mood.
A brief screen for PTSD or depression can guide you to the right referral.
You can also teach coping skills so the cigarette is not the only tool for relief.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cigarette smoking may be conceptualized as a strategy to cope with negative affect. Therefore, rates of cigarette use might be expected to be greater in individuals experiencing events that produce negative affect, such as assault. To test this hypothesis, a national sample of 3,006 women aged 18 and older was assessed for lifetime and current cigarette use, previous history of physical and sexual assault, lifetime and current incidence of depression, and lifetime and current incidence of PTSD. Results indicated that the odds of active smoking in women with a lifetime history of assault were 1.82 times those of women with no previous history of assault. Similarly, risk of active cigarette use in women with a previous history of depression or PTSD was 2.22 and 1.34 times those of women with no depressive or PTSD history, respectively. Recent assault, current PTSD, or current depression status were not associated with increased cigarette use.
Behavior modification, 1996 · doi:10.1177/01454455960204001