Higher Behavioral Profile of Mindfulness and Psychological Flexibility is Related to Reduced Impulsivity in Smokers, and Reduced Risk Aversion Regardless of Smoking Status

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and addiction are interrelated in decision making. In our study, we investigated the relationship of the behavioral profile, composed of mindfulness and psychological flexibility, and smoking status on delay and probability discounting. We demonstrated the interaction of the behavioral profile of mindfulness and psychological flexibility (lower or higher) and smoking status on delay discounting. We found that individuals who smoked and displayed higher mindfulness and psychological flexibility devalued rewards at a slower rate, compared to smokers with a lower profile. Importantly, in those with a higher profile, smokers discounted rewards no differently than nonsmokers. Smokers with a lower profile did display, however, increased impulsivity, compared to nonsmokers. These results suggest that behavioral interventions aiming to modify the behavioral profile with regard to mindfulness and psychological flexibility can indeed support the regulation of elevated impulsivity in smokers to equate with that of nonsmokers. In probability discounting, we observed that individuals with a higher profile displayed lower discounting rates, i.e., were less risk-averse, with no other significant main effect or interaction.

A Cross-Sectional Study of Psychological Flexibility as a Mediator for the Relationship Between Acculturative Stress and Cardiovascular Health Behaviors Among Second-Generation Arab Americans

“…When developing a culturally sensitive interventions to improve the cardiovascular health of ArAm, nurses may consider the role of acculturative stress and psychological flexibility. This sample reported higher PF than other studies (Marcowski et al, 2017; Schaumberg et al, 2016; Schumacher et al, 2019). The high levels of PF in this study may be indicative of younger, healthy adults who may be mindful and committed to healthier CVHB.…”

“…In this study, the participants’ higher PF levels decreased the likelihood to smoke. Marcowski et al (2017) suggested that higher PF levels may increase the success in quitting smoking by controlling impulsive behaviors. Furthermore, higher PF level was related to developing a healthy diet and eating habits (Laraia et al, 2018; Schaumberg et al, 2016).…”

“…Conversely, overweight and obese adults with lower PF scores reported significantly more distress-related overeating episodes (Schaumberg et al, 2016). Marcowski et al (2017) found that smokers with lower PF were more impulsive than the smokers with higher PF, suggesting that increasing PF may promote smoking cessation.…”

Mindfulness intervention for impulsivity as a stand-alone treatment: A qualitative review of emerging evidence.

“…We excluded articles for the following reasons: (a) being a duplicate article (in Google Scholar and Pubmed); (b) being a review or theory article (which we scanned for relevant references); and (c) not an intervention that examines the direct link between a mindfulness intervention and impulsivity. More specifically, we excluded studies that investigated (a) mindfulness or impulsivity as a mediator or moderator of other variables (e.g., Vinci et al, 2016, examined the mediating role of impulsivity and mindfulness on the relation between mindfulness training and sexual risk); (b) mindfulness interventions used in conjunction with another well-defined treatment protocol (e.g., Schoenberg et al, 2014, utilized Mindfulness-based stress reduction; Yao et al, 2017, combined mindfulness with reality therapy); (c) an intervention labeled as mindfulness inappropriately (only studies that clearly justified their intervention as mindfulness were included) (e.g., Green et al, 2018, implemented biofeedback training, which arguably involves more introspective awareness than mindfulness); and (d) impulsive behaviors or urges secondary to addiction that did not include an appropriate measure and operationalization of impulsivity (e.g., Marcowski et al, 2017, used urges to smoke to index impulsivity, although urges do not necessarily indicate impulsivity or impulsive behavior). Conner and White (2018) used a well-known measure of emotion regulation to index impulsivity.…”

The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy-based intervention in therapy for mental health disorders – case study

“…Previous studies on in terventions based on ACT have brought promising results [22,2531]. There is also some Polish literature re garding ACT as a potential tool for enhancing adaptive functioning [32,33]. Programmes based on ACT are in line with the transdiagnostic approach [5], which empha sises that components of psychopathology are present across DSMcategorised disorders [34].…”