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A talk with a nurse can persuade hospital patients to quit smoking

New research shows that self-reported quit rates among hospital patients more than doubled when nurses and other staff were trained to coach patients on how to stop smoking and to make sure they got the help they needed to make it happen, whether that meant counseling, patches, gum or prescription medication. "They were armed with everything they needed when they left -- medication, behavioral tactics, a manual to help them stay on track," said Sonia Duffy, a professor of nursing at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study, which appears in the  American Journal of Preventive Medicine . "Hospitalization is the perfect time to help people quit. They're more motivated and nurses can explain how smoking harms their health, including slowing healing," said Duffy, who also works for the Department of Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The study of 1,528 patients in five community hospitals in Michigan looked at self-reported and lab...

E-cigarette use linked to successful attempts to quit smoking

In 2015, use of e-cigarettes may have resulted in an additional 18,000 long-term ex-smokers in England, the study estimates, and the authors say "although these numbers are relatively small, they are clinically significant because of the huge health gains from stopping smoking." They explain that a 40-year-old smoker who quits permanently can expect to gain nine life years compared with a continuing smoker. Nevertheless, as with any observational study, firm conclusions about cause and effect cannot be drawn, they say. Meanwhile, no clear evidence emerged for an association between e-cigarette use and rate of quit attempts, use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) bought over the counter, overall use of prescription treatment, or use of NHS stop-smoking services. The authors explain that the results "conflict with the hypothesis that an increase in population use of e-cigarettes undermines quitting in general." However, e-cigarette use in quit attempts...

Internet addiction may indicate other mental health problems in college-aged students

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The unstoppable rise of the web has given rise to fears that rising numbers persons are turning into unable to manage with out repeatedly going surfing. Credit score: © Rostislav Sedlacek / Fotolia A brand new survey of web customers means that individuals who use the web excessively could have extra psychological well being issues . Utilizing two scales to guage web use, researchers have discovered excessive charges of problematic web use in a bunch of primarily college-aged college students. The researchers evaluated web habit utilizing the Web Dependancy Take a look at, in addition to newer scale of their very own design, based mostly on up to date habit standards. This work, which is offered on the ECNP convention in Vienna, could have implications for a way psychiatrists method extreme web use. The unstoppable rise of the web has given rise to fears that rising numbers persons are turning into unable to manage with out...

Drinking beer helps us see happy faces faster

Although the vast majority of adults have direct experience of drinking alcohol, there is surprisingly little scientific data on the effects of alcohol on the processing of emotional social information or on sexual arousal, and no data on the effects of alcohol on empathy. Now researchers from the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, have attempted to answer some of the questions around the way alcohol alters the way we relate to others, and how alcohol affects sexual arousal. In a double-blind, random-order, cross-over study, researchers enlisted 60 healthy participants (30 men, 30 women) aged between 18 and 50.They then gave 30 of them a glass of alcoholic beer (0.5L depending on body weight and sex). This raised their blood alcohol content to around 0.4 g/L Thirty control subjects were given non-alcoholic beer. The subjects then underwent a range of tasks, including a face recognition test, empathy test, and sexual arousal test. At the end of the tests, the subjects and ...

Let's talk about more than sex: Parents in favor of expanding health education

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What dad and mom say needs to be coated in well being schooling. Credit score: C.S. Mott Kids's Hospital Nationwide Ballot on Kids's Well being Instructing children about medicine, alcohol and intercourse seems to be much less controversial than ever earlier than with the vast majority of dad and mom in a brand new ballot saying colleges ought to and do train these topics. Many dad and mom need extra -- saying these matters usually are not sufficient -- finds the College of Michigan C.S. Mott Kids's Hospital Nationwide Ballot on Kids's Well being. Researchers surveyed a nationally consultant pattern of fogeys with children in center or highschool. Two-thirds of fogeys polled say colleges ought to positively cowl emotional and psychological well being points -- which can embrace such topics as coping with despair, stress and bullying -- but solely a 3rd say these matters are at present coated by their kid's ...

Opioids may affect how we perceive 'cuteness' of babies

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Options altered to vary child schema to 'rising cuteness.' Credit score: This determine has appeared in Child Schema in Toddler Faces Induces Cuteness Notion and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults. Melanie L. Glocker et al, Ethology 115 (2009) 257–263 ยช 2009 Blackwell Verlag GmbH, doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01603.x, and in Child schema modulates the mind reward system in nulliparous girls. Melanie L. Glocker e t al, PNAS vol 106 no 22 (2009) pp 9115-9119, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0811620106. The cooperation of Wiley International Permissions for the usage of this determine is acknowledged. A brand new pilot research has discovered that opioid dependence -- which incorporates dependence on medication akin to heroin -- impacts how 'cute' we understand photos of youngsters to be. As cuteness can set off caregiving motivation, this outcome signifies that the opioid system might have vital results on our capacity to look af...

Sleep habits, adolescent drug and alcohol use linked, shows research

"Treating problems with drugs and alcohol once they exist and preventing them can be challenging, and we are always looking for modifiable risk factors," said Brant P. Hasler, Ph.D. , assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology, and lead author of the study. "Doing what we can to ensure sufficient sleep duration and improve sleep quality during late childhood may have benefits in terms of reducing the use of these substances later in life." Researchers analyzed 186 boys from western Pennsylvania whose mothers completed the Child Sleep Questionnaire as part of a larger longitudinal study of low-income boys examining factors associated with vulnerability and resilience. Based on questionnaire results from when the boys were 11 years old, their sleep time and sleep quality were calculated. At ages 20 and 22, the young men were interviewed about lifetime cannabis and alcohol use. After accounting for race, socioeconomic problems , neighborhood danger, self-...