ANTI-SMOKING MEDICATIN RE3DUCES ALCOHAL DEPENDECE

Anti-smoking Medication Reduces Alcohol Dependence

By Damilola Seriki at June 18, 2013 

 

 

The saying “kill two birds with one stone” could be getting a whole new meaning after a news release from the National Institutes of Health or NIH for short.  There was a recent study performed by the NIH under the direction of Dr. Raye Z Litten that compared the inter-dependency of anti-smoking medication and dependency of alcohol.

The study proved to be an amazing success and the results have led the team to conclude that with a patient taking anti-smoking medication they are also lowering their dependency of alcohol, if applicable.  The study was primarily based off of a drug called varenicline, or more commonly known as Chantix, which has been proven to help people reduce and even quit the nasty habit of smoking cigarettes.
People in the study showed that as they were taking more of the varenicline or Chantix, that they also seemed to drink less than if they weren’t.  Of course we can also assume that the inter-dependency also deals with ease of access to alcohol.  In my perspective someone that was trying to quit cigarettes (thus why they are taking varenicline in the first place) may intentionally avoid places like bars, lounges, and other venues that serve alcohol.  In order to fully finish this research there would need to be another study to show the inter-connectivity between smoking cigarettes and alcohol.  If the correlation is high, then it would make perfect sense that the act and mentality of wanting to quit smoking would also persuade a person to drink less, not the varenicline.
This was a great study and the team has done an excellent job.  Hopefully they will follow this release up with some more studies and research on the topic.  Be sure to leave your thoughts below in the comments section.

LINK :

1.  http://scicraze.com/2013/06/18/anti-smoking-medication-reduces-alcohol-dependence/

 

DO ANTI-SMOKING COMMERCIALS WORK?

BRAIN SCANS REVEAL THE GRAPHIC IMPACT OF ANTI-SMOKING COMMERCIALS

Due to their exceedingly graphic nature, antismoking TV commercials are hard to miss, but many question if their attention-grabbing tactics actually persuade smokers to quit. A new study claims that brain imaging can determine which aspects of an anti-smoking public service announcement (PSA) will convince a smoker to break the habit.
These findings are extremely fortuitous, as public health officials are searching for new, efficient ways to engage smokers. National efforts to curb smoking have apparently flatlined, as after decades of decline, the adult smoking rate has hovered at 20 percent in recent years, according to reports from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, states have dramatically cut funding for tobacco prevention programs, as reported in the New York Times, by nearly 40 percent — $250 million — since 2008, which will undoubtedly force public health officials to maximize the reach and impact of future antismoking campaigns.
In what is possibly a landmark study, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at University of the Pennsylvania have found that brain activity can dictate how a smoker will respond to the content and format of a televised ad.  This finding could allow advertisers to streamline the development of PSAs by providing a direct readout for consumer behavior.
"It's one of the first papers to embed concepts from the world of communications into the world of biology," said Dr. Daniel D. Langleben, senior author on the study and a psychiatrist at the Pearlman School of Medicine.
While creating a PSA, communication specialists typically focus on two basic elements: its 'argument strength' (how persuasive is its message?) and its 'sensation value' (does it have enough special effects?). Smokers have long been considered to be sensation/thrill seekers, so for decades, PSAs have often tried to engage this trait with vivid imagery and gripping soundtracks. The results have been mixed. While smokers are more likely to recall flashier ads, there has been limited success with convincing individuals to actually quit.
To determine if neural activity could predict quitting behavior, 71 smokers were asked to view a series of short, 30-second antismoking PSAs, while their brains were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Each participant watched 16 commercials that had either strong arguments ("If the personal health dangers aren't enough, consider quitting for your children and those you love") or weak arguments ("Smoking makes you less attractive to potential partners.")
One month after the screening, the researchers sampled the subjects' urine for cotinine — a metabolite of nicotine — to see who had changed their smoking behavior.
They found that activation in one brain region, the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), predicted whether a person would eventually reduce their cigarette consumption.  The largest spikes in dmPFC brain activity were seen when the PSAs had a strong argument, regardless of the level of special effects or pizzazz.
"Thus, greater activation in dmPFC predicts long-term outcomes; i.e., less smoking," said Dr. An-Li Wang, a neuroscientist and first author of the study. She added that these subjects were not seeking treatment at the outset of the study, suggesting that their viewing sessions had a direct impact on their subsequent smoking behavior.
Before Dr. Langleben tells advertisers to add neuroscientists for their staffs, he would like to perform a larger follow-up study where PSAs are precisely tailored to induce specific neural responses in subjects. Although this might spawn 'Manchurian' commercials and highly suggestive marketing, it could ultimately provide empirical variables that can build better ads to deter smoking.
"Overall, what we have here is another substantial step towards objective measures for evaluating health communications," said Langleben.
Co-authors of the study include Kosha Ruparel, MSE, James W. Loughead, PhD, Andrew A. Strasser, PhD, Shira J. Blady, Kevin G. Lynch, PhD, Dan Romer, PhD, and Caryn Lerman, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine, and Joseph N. Cappella, PhD, of the Annenberg School for Communication.


LINK :
  1.  http://www.medicaldaily.com/do-anti-smoking-commercials-work-brain-scans-reveal-answer-245221

2.  http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8820706532194535856#editor/target=post;postID=1419890530102021634;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

 3.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423211716.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmost_popular+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Most+Popular+News%29

4.  http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/24/anti.smoking.ads.with.strong.arguments.not.flashy.editing.trigger.part.brain.involving.behavior.change 

5.http://www.science20.com/news_articles/antismoking_ads_work_are_not_most_shocking_ones-110188

GRAPHIC AND EMOTIONAL ADS HELP QUIT SMOKING

Washington, October 14 : Graphic and emotional television anti-smoking advertisements motivate more smokers to try to quit than less intense ads, according to a new study.
"Harder hitting ads worked equally well, regardless of how much you wanted to quit, irrespective of the income and education levels, said Matthew C. Farrelly, Ph.D., chief scientist at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and lead author on the study.
The study evaluated the impact of anti-smoking ads run by the New York Tobacco Control Program from 2003 to 2011. Smokers were surveyed about their smoking habits, their recall of anti-smoking ads, their desire to quit and demographic information, such as income level and race.
Researchers looked at media market data and determined that the survey participants were exposed to an average of three emotional or graphic anti-smoking commercials and three comparison ads per month during that period. Comparison ads advocated or encouraged quitting but without strong emotional content.
The survey found that current smokers who recalled seeing at least one emotional or graphic ad were 29 percent more likely to have tried to quit in the prior year.
Exposure to comparison ads did not increase quit attempts. If the goal is to get smokers to try to quit, ads need to evoke a strongly negative reaction to smoking, the study concluded.
"It surprised me that it would work so well across the board for different types of smokers," Farrelly said.
Graphic, emotional ads may work well because they cut through the noise of other advertising, he noted.
It is known that hard-hitting anti-smoking advertising works, said Erika Sward, director of national advocacy for the American Lung Association in Washington, D.C.
"This study confirms and highlights that what is missing is the lack of political will on the part of state governments to do what works," she added.
This piece is based on study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.