, 2001; Rausch, Nichinson, Lamke, & Matloff, 1990). Because women have higher rates of depression than men (Kessler et al., 1994), are more likely to use smoking as a coping strategy for managing negative affect (NA; Abrams et al., 1987), selleck chemicals llc and are less likely to be successful in maintaining smoking abstinence (Bjornson et al., 1995; Wetter et al., 1999), some have recommended tailoring smoking cessation programs to depressed women (Borrelli, Bock, King, Pinto, & Marcus, 1996). Exercise is an effective treatment for depression (e.g., Blumenthal et al., 1999, 2007; Dunn, Trivedi, Kampert, Clark, & Chambliss, 2005) and therefore may benefit depressed smokers. However, as a treatment for smoking cessation, the support for exercise is mixed (for a review, see Ussher, 2005). Marcus et al.

(1999) randomly assigned female smokers to a 12-week cognitive behavioral intervention for smoking cessation plus exercise or the same cognitive behavioral intervention plus a contact control (i.e., health education). Participants in the exercise intervention arm completed three supervised gym-based vigorous intensity exercise sessions per week. The exercise arm achieved significantly higher levels of continuous abstinence than the health education group at the EOT (19.4% vs. 10.2%) and at 3 (16.4% vs. 8.2%) and 12 months (11.9% vs. 5.4%) following treatment. Additional studies have found higher cessation rates among exercise conditions compared with control conditions (Marcus, Albrecht, Niaura, Abrams, & Thompson, 1991; Marcus et al., 1995) and that levels of exercise adherence predicted long-term smoking abstinence (Marcus et al.

, 2005). Several other studies have indicated no effect of an exercise intervention on smoking cessation, but these studies are limited by small samples or by exercise interventions that are probably not intensive enough to aid smoking cessation (Ussher, 2005). There is some evidence that exercise reduces NA during smoking abstinence. For example, Ussher, West, McEwen, Taylor, and Steptoe (2003) showed that, compared with an equal contact control condition, men and women receiving physical activity counseling reported less tension, anxiety, stress, irritability, and restlessness during the first weeks of smoking cessation. In addition, there is evidence to suggest an acute reduction in depressed mood following a bout of exercise during smoking abstinence Carfilzomib (Taylor, Ussher, & Faulkner, 2007). Finally, survey results suggested that many individuals with depression are receptive to the idea of increasing physical activity as an aid to stopping smoking (Faulkner, Taylor, Munro, Selby, & Gee, 2007). We are aware of no previous study that has examined the feasibility or efficacy of an exercise intervention among depressed female smokers.