Nicotine-free electronic-cigarettes for smoking cessation: Occasional reinforcement during extinction

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether using e-cigarettes with occasional use of regular cigarettes prevented relapse after extinction. In Experiment 1 (ABAC with a multiple-baseline design), six short-term smokers who wanted to stop smoking were asked to use e-cigarettes and were allowed to smoke 20 % of the usual number of regular cigarettes per day during the partial reinforcement period. Experiment 1 demonstrated that using e-cigarettes reduced the amount of smoking even after extinction. In Experiment 2 (ABAB design), which involved a single long-time smoker and partial reinforcement, the participant was unable to maintain low rates of smoking after the experiment. However, the excessive smoking (regular cigarettes > 15 per day) observed before the experiment was prevented. This study suggested that a partial reinforcement procedure (occasionally smoking cigarettes) prevented relapse after extinction without hardship in some smokers.