Cigarette smoking is an extremely hazardous behavior for all individuals. In fact, half of all smokers will die of a smoking-related cause (Doll, et al., 1994). The United States Supreme Court (2000) recently found that tobacco use, particularly among children and adolescents, poses perhaps the single most significant threat to public health in the United States."""""""" If current rates of youth smoking continue, more than five million children alive today will die as a result of cigarette smoking (Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2000). While enormous strides have been made in the treatment of adult cigarette smoking, relatively scant attention has been paid to treating adolescent cigarette smoking. The treatment of adult cigarette smoking has benefited greatly from the use of nicotine replacement therapy, particularly when delivered via a transdermal patch. Unfortunately, early research suggests that replacement therapy is not an effective intervention for adolescents. In a recent study, transdermal nicotine patches did not prove effective in the treatment of adolescent cigarette smokers (Hurt, Croghan, Beede, Wolter, Croghan, & Patten, 2000). In that report the authors suggest that a behavioral intervention might prove more efficacious with adolescents. This may be particularly true if the cigarette smoking of adolescents is partially maintained by factors that do not strongly influence adult cigarette smoking and are not mediated by nicotine (e.g., perception of their peers, rebelling against authority). Recently my colleagues and I completed a feasibility study designed to examine the utility of using a contingency-management based behavioral intervention in treating adolescent cigarette smokers (Corby, Roll, Ledgerwood & Schuster, 2000). This study yielded very promising results. This application seeks funds to conduct a small-scale clinical trial of the procedure to assess its potential utility in treating adolescent cigarette smoking. Secondarily, the proposed study will provide valuable information on the nicotine withdrawal syndrome in adolescents, a topic about which relatively little is known.
