health 53

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ª 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...

"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-...

The paper, an extensive review of current research, offers a much deeper understanding of why nicotine withdrawal symptoms for people with depression make it much more difficult to quit smoking. The paper was published in the international journal Addiction . "We've used this new theory of withdrawal in depressed smokers to develop the first targeted approach for smoking cessation in this underserved population," said senior author Brian Hitsman, associate professor of preventive medicine and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Depressed smokers experience adverse withdrawal states that contribute to resumption of smoking , including low mood, difficulty engaging in rewarding activities and impaired thinking/memory, the paper reports. These symptoms are more severe for people with depression than for those without depression. In addition, depressed smokers tend to have fewer ways to cope with the symptoms a...

Nicotine molecular construction. Texas A&M analysis reveals how this element of cigarettes may really be useful by itself. Credit score: © Dario Lo Presti / Fotolia Everybody is aware of that tobacco merchandise are unhealthy in your well being, and even the brand new e-cigarettes might have dangerous toxins. Nonetheless, based on analysis at Texas A&M, it seems the nicotine itself -- when given independently from tobacco -- may assist shield the mind because it ages, and even chase away Parkinson's or Alzheimer's illness. Ursula Winzer-Serhan, PhD, an affiliate professor on the Texas A&M Faculty of Drugs, and her collaborators discovered that nicotine's potential to be neuroprotective could also be partly on account of its well-known potential to suppress the urge for food. Their analysis is printed within the Open Entry  Journal of Toxicology . Utilizing animal fashions, Winzer-Serhan and her collabora...

Researchers had 66 participants (35 women, 31 men), recruited from the Brown University Center for AIDS Research, undergo a comprehensive neurocognitive battery of testing. Current heavy drinkers (n=21) were classified using National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism criteria and structured clinical interviews and, further, were compared to non-drinkers and moderate drinkers (n=45). About 53 percent of the total population had a lifetime history of alcohol dependence (AD). Neurocognitive data were grouped according to global cognitive function, attention/executive function, learning, memory, motor function, verbal function, and speed of processing. Results showed that current heavy drinking in older adults was associated with poorer global cognitive function, learning, memory, and motor function. Furthermore, a lifetime history of AD was associated with poorer function in the same neurocognitive domains, as well as the attention/executive domain, notwithstanding age. In su...