A previous study examined determinants of attributions for success or failure in stopping smoking in a self-help treatment program with and without a drug component. This follow-up study examined the attributions that successful quitters made after remaining abstinent through 12 months, or after they relapsed. Subjects (N=137) had been assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (1) nicotine gum and a self-help manual with an intrinsic motivational orientation; (2) self-help manual with an intrinsic motivational orientation only; and (3) nicotine gum and a self-help manual with an extrinsic motivational orientation. Fifty patients quit smoking and returned for follow-up interviews. At each interview subjects rated how much their non-smoking or their return to smoking was influenced by their own efforts, their abilities, an unexpected event, or their doctor. Abstainers made more internal attributions and lower attributions to chance than did relapsers. Abstainers also gave credit to their physicians for success. Relapsers blamed unexpected events for their failure but did not fault their doctor. Treatment manipulation influenced attributions in that extrinsic gum abstainers attributed their success to chance more than did intrinsic abstainers. These findings suggest that relapsers given an intrinsic self-help manual may be best prepared to try quitting again since they blamed neither themselves nor their doctor, but attributed their failure to chance. (NB)