Individual differences in difficulty quitting smoking.

This essay comments on the main approaches to studying individual differences in ability to quit smoking, and suggests complementing them with a concept of 'difficulty of quitting'. Several areas of research into determinants of ability to quit smoking are discussed, including measures of dependence, reactivity to nicotine, severity of withdrawal symptoms, endurance of discomfort, and psychological well being. A number of correlates of inability to quit may have a common denominator in stress and neuroticism. If these are the primary obstacles to quitting, changes in the composition of the smoking population and in the image of smoking can be expected which could lead to smoking losing some of its appeal for potential new recruits.