Research with both clinical and population-based samples, yields a fairly consistent pattern in which DSM-IV based measures are less predictive of smoking cessation than are other types of dependence measures [28, 29, 35, 46]. For instance, the DSM criteria (assessed with the NIMH-DIS) were less predictive of smoking status over a 3-year longitudinal study than was the FTND [28]; also, cf. [47]. The items of the FTND were superior whether both measures were used as binary (dependent/nondependent) or continuous measures. In addition, multiple clinical trials have shown that the FTND predicts cessation success better than does the DSM [9, 29, 35, 46](with OR’s = 2–3 [22]). In addition, existing research suggests the DSM-IV based instruments tend to have modest relations with both smoking heaviness measures and withdrawal [29, 47], relations seemingly weaker than those of alternative dependence instruments [12, 29].
