Affective style among smokers: understanding anxiety sensitivity, emotional reactivity, and distress tolerance using biological challenge.

The present investigation evaluated affective style in terms of anxiety sensitivity, emotional reactivity, and distress tolerance in heavy smokers. Specifically, heavy smokers (> or = 20 cigarettes per day) were partitioned into those who were able to quit for at least 7 days (n = 10) and those who were able to quit for less than 7 days (n = 12). All participants completed measures of anxiety sensitivity and maximum breath-holding duration and then were exposed to a 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air challenge. Results indicated that heavy smokers who had not been able to remain abstinent from smoking for at least 1 week during a quit attempt demonstrated significantly greater cognitive-affective reactivity to the challenge relative to their counterparts but did not differ at a physiological level of analysis. Contrary to our hypotheses, neither anxiety sensitivity scores nor maximum breath-holding duration significantly differed between the groups. These findings are discussed in relation to better understanding affective style among heavy smokers.