A controlled study was performed to determine the efficacy of Mindfulness Therapy (MT) in treating smoking dependence among 40 adults. Half of the participants received the standard therapy for smoking dependence, while the rest received the MT. After 16 weeks, the participants were asked to fill out the Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS) to indicate their level of dependence on the substance. The null hypothesis assumed that there was no difference between the NDSS scores for the two groups. The study used an independent samples t-test, as the two groups were independent of each other, no outliers were expected, and the NDSS scores were normally distributed (Jackson, 2016). Subjects that received MT had a lower NDSS score (M = 8.1, SD = 3.04) compared to the participants that received standard treatment (M = 13.25, SD = 3.51). The difference in average score for standard and MT interventions was significant, with t (38) = 4.9607, p =.000. Since p <0.05, the study rejected the null hypothesis, as nicotine dependence was significantly lower among subjects that received MT compared to the standard therapy. The findings indicate that MT is more effective in reducing nicotine dependence among youths compared to standard therapy. These findings support the need for practitioners to adopt MT as the preferred intervention against smoking. In addition, the findings corroborate those of existing studies that indicate that combining non-judgmental attitudes in substance-dependence counseling produces better individual awareness and builds the capacity to overcome existing weaknesses. Such interventions are needed to stem the rising tide of nicotine dependence among the youth. Consequently, practitioners and policymakers should include mindfulness sessions in their standard therapy interventions to achieve better results that last longer than ordinary treatments.
Reference
Jackson, S. L. (2016). Research methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach. Cengage Learning.