The synergistic effect of cigarette demand and delay discounting on nicotine dependence among treatment-seeking smokers.

From a behavioral economics standpoint, tobacco addiction can be conceptualized as a reinforcer pathology deriving from high cigarette demand and elevated delay discounting (DD) rates. The primary aim of this study was to assess the interactive effects of cigarette demand and DD on nicotine dependence (ND) and cigarette consumption among a sample of treatment-seeking smokers. Participants were 277 smokers (68.9% women) who completed the 19-item version of the Cigarette Purchase Task, a computerized version of the DD task and the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence. To assess cigarette consumption, participants were also asked about their mean number of cigarettes smoked per day. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to assess the interactive effects of demand indices and DD on ND and cigarettes smoked per day. The area under the curve for both demand and DD was used to explore the interactive effect of the 2 variables. Results showed that the interaction between cigarette demand and DD was significantly related to ND severity ( p < .05) but not to cigarette consumption. This is the first study showing that the synergistic effect of cigarette demand and DD better accounts for ND in treatment-seeking smokers than the 2 isolated constructs. It also supports the utility of area under the curve as a proxy for cigarette demand, providing methodological convergence with other behavioral economic domains, such as DD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).