Research paper
Bowen S, Marlatt A. Surfing the urge: brief mindfulness-based intervention for college student smokers. Psychol Addict Behav. 2009 Dec;23(4):666-71. doi:10.1037/a0017127
Why we cite it
Empirical test of Marlatt’s “urge surfing” technique. 123 undergraduate smokers took part in a cue exposure task designed to elicit urges to smoke, and were randomly assigned to brief mindfulness-based instructions or a no-instruction control group. The groups did not differ significantly on measures of urges, which is a null and not evidence that the urges were the same. The mindfulness group smoked significantly fewer cigarettes over the 7-day follow-up. The authors read this, twice hedged, as suggesting the techniques ”may not initially reduce urges to smoke but may change the response to urges”, and call the study ”preliminary data for future studies examining both mechanisms and effectiveness”.
About the author
Sarah Bowen — BA Psychology, PhD Clinical Psychology (University of Washington, 2008; mentor G. Alan Marlatt). At time of paper: doctoral student/postdoc at UW Addictive Behaviors Research Center. Later Associate Professor, Pacific University (Portland, OR); affiliate research faculty, UW Psychiatry. Co-author of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors: A Clinician’s Guide (Guilford Press, 2011; 2nd ed. 2021). Research focus: mindfulness-based therapies for relapse prevention, mechanisms of change in craving and thought suppression.
G. Alan Marlatt (1941–2011) (senior author/PI) — BA Psychology (University of British Columbia, 1964). PhD Clinical Psychology (Indiana University, 1968). Professor of Psychology and Director, Addictive Behaviors Research Center, University of Washington (1972–2011). Co-author, with Judith Gordon, of the 1985 relapse prevention text, later issued in a second edition. Named in this paper’s abstract as the source of the urge surfing technique. Developed BASICS (Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students). Associated with harm-reduction approaches. Robert Wood Johnson Innovators Award (2001), Distinguished Researcher Award from Research Society on Alcoholism (2004). Passed away March 14, 2011 (melanoma), age 69.