So you really want to quit smoking this time. You’ve set a date to quit. But you’ve done this before, and in the end, you’ve picked up the cigarettes again. Will this time be any different?

EXTRA: Two personal takes on what it took to quit

• Read the story of a first-year student

• Read the story of  an employee in the smoking study

A lot can depend on your mood as you approach your quit date. If you are approaching with fear and distress, your chances for success are lower than if you approach it with a positive or neutral outlook, says Danielle McCarthy, an assistant professor of psychology in New Brunswick, who has published research on smoking cessation and is in the midst of another study.

McCarthy’s research has pinpointed some commonalities among those who fail to break the habit. Factors signaling that the quitting attempt is doomed include: distress and negative emotions during the week before quitting, strong cravings on the quit day, and low levels of confidence and motivation, McCarthy says.

McCarthy is trying to better the odds by examining those negative emotions and cravings for clues to who will return to smoking and who will be successful in staying smoke-free. Most smokers say they want to quit, yet among those who attempt it, only 4 percent are succeeding three months later, McCarthy says, citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. And most have to try five to seven times before they quit for good. "So persistence really pays off,’ she says.

She is currently conducting a study of 100 smokers, drawn from the Rutgers New Brunswick Campus and surrounding municipalities. The final 15 participants will be recruited in January and February. The research is funded through a grant by the Charles and Johanna Busch Biomedical Fund, designed to promote health-related research at Rutgers.

Volunteer participants, who must be 18 years old or older, will keep detailed electronic daily diaries recording their emotions and cravings, beginning 10 days before their quit date, and continuing for the following three weeks.

Common relapse triggers for smokers yearning to quit are weight gain, stressful situations, and celebrations – such as weddings or parties, McCarthy says. “It doesn’t always have to be a negative, stressful event that makes someone pick up a cigarette,’’ she adds. “You can be at someone’s party and think, ‘I’ll just smoke tonight,’ and that opens the door to relapse.”

Each study participant also will receives one-on-one counseling and nicotine lozenges. McCarthy is trying to determine through research which anti-smoking aids work best and how they help smokers trying to quit.

McCarthy joined Rutgers in 2006. Since coming to the university, she set up the Smoking Cessation Laboratory, designed to investigate the psychological processes that contribute to smoking despite the high personal and societal costs. McCarthy and her students use this information to develop better treatments to help people stop smoking for life.

McCarthy received her doctorate in clinical psychology in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. While at the University of Wisconsin, McCarthy helped conduct a smoking study there, where 70 adult smokers were assigned to an active or placebo nicotine patch and asked to keep an electronic diary.

That study yielded new information about how attempting to quit smoking changes smokers’ lives. It showed that smokers’ withdrawal symptoms increased significantly over the first hours after the quit date. It also showed that the intensity of negative emotions prior to the smokers’ quit day and the increase in cravings just after quitting were inversely related to the smokers’ success in staying smoke-free three months later.

In other words, McCarthy says, “The more distressed a person felt – the more the person struggled to stay smoke-free.”

Research also has found that counseling – along with such aids as nicotine patches, gum, and lozenges; nasal sprays and inhalers; and prescription medications – can increase success rates for would-be nonsmokers. "Treatments and counseling have been found in previous research to double your chances of staying smoke-free,” McCarthy says.

McCarthy noted that New Jersey offers free services to those wishing to quit, including free clinics, such as the one at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on George Street (732-235-8222) in New Brunswick, and toll-free hotlines, such as 1-866-NJSTOPS.

Most important, your best chance of quitting is not to go it alone, McCarthy says. Although many people quit successfully without formal assistance, treatment and social support have been shown to increase the odds of staying tobacco-free for life.