Positive Psychotherapy for Smoking Cessation: A Focus on Strengths to Improve Self-efficacy and Enable Successful Quitting Strategies

This project aims to adapt the Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) practice for smoking cessation in adults with severe mental illness (SMI), testing its usability, feasibility, and acceptability in a mixed-methods feasibility pilot study. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to obtain usability and acceptability input on the adapted PPT manual from 4-5 Peer Providers. Then, in partnership with The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester (MHCGM), 6-8 adult smokers with SMI will be recruited who want to quit smoking in the next month and are willing to use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). The 16-week PPT adaptation ("Positive Recovery for Smoking") will be tested progress on cessation assessed through interviewer-administered quantitative assessments at baseline, 8, and 16 weeks. Self-reported cigarettes per day (CPD) and carbon monoxide (CO) will be collected prior to each group treatment session. Informed by the weekly group check-in of cessation progress (quitting status), qualitative interviews will be conducted at 16 weeks to obtain a more nuanced description of the uptake of the intervention, successful quitting strategies, and barriers to cessation with this new method. The manual and materials will be adapted based on the feedback from the first group and another group of 6-8 participants will be recruited to receive the refined intervention and protocol. The result of this feasibility pilot will provide data on the adapted PPT's feasibility and acceptability, alongside a deep description of strategies used and why and how the treatment was perceived as useful or not to the enrolled participants.