Addiction Rehab: Desire Versus Efficacy in Smokers’ Paradoxical Reactions to Pictorial Health Warnings for Cigarettes.

Desire versus Efficacy in Smokers’ Paradoxical Reactions to Pictorial Health Warnings for Cigarettes.

Filed under: Addiction Rehab

PLoS One. 2013; 8(1): e54937
Romer D, Peters E, Strasser AA, Langleben D

Pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs create aversive emotional reactions to smoking and induce thoughts about quitting; however, contrary to models of health behavior change, they do not appear to alter intentions to quit smoking. We propose and test a novel model of intention to quit an addictive habit such as smoking (the efficacy-desire model) that can explain this paradoxical effect. At the core of the model is the prediction that self-efficacy and desire to quit an addictive habit are inversely related. We tested the model in an online experiment that randomly exposed smokers (N?=?3297) to a cigarette pack with one of three increasing levels of warning intensity. The results supported the model’s prediction that despite the effects of warnings on aversion to smoking, intention to quit smoking is an inverted U-shape function of the smoker’s self-efficacy for quitting. In addition, smokers with greater (lesser) quit efficacy relative to smoking efficacy increase (decrease) intentions to quit. The findings show that previous failures to observe effects of pictorial warning labels on quit intentions can be explained by the contradictory individual differences that warnings produce. Thus, the model explains the paradoxical finding that quit intentions do not change at the population level, even though smokers recognize the implications of warnings. The model suggests that pictorial warnings are effective for smokers with stronger quit-efficacy beliefs and provides guidance for how cigarette warnings and tobacco control strategies can be designed to help smokers quit.
HubMed – addiction

 

Does a Shared Neurobiology for Foods and Drugs of Abuse Contribute to Extremes of Food Ingestion in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

Filed under: Addiction Rehab

Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Feb 1;
Kaye WH, Wierenga CE, Bailer UF, Simmons AN, Wagner A, Bischoff-Grethe A

Is starvation in anorexia nervosa (AN) or overeating in bulimia nervosa (BN) a form of addiction? Alternatively, why are individuals with BN more vulnerable and individuals with AN protected from substance abuse? Such questions have been generated by recent studies suggesting that there are overlapping neural circuits for foods and drugs of abuse. To determine whether a shared neurobiology contributes to eating disorders and substance abuse, this review focused on imaging studies that investigated response to tastes of food and tasks designed to characterize reward and behavioral inhibition in AN and BN. BN and those with substance abuse disorders may share dopamine D2 receptor-related vulnerabilities, and opposite findings may contribute to “protection” from substance abuse in AN. Moreover, imaging studies provide insights into executive corticostriatal processes related to extraordinary inhibition and self-control in AN and diminished inhibitory self-control in BN that may influence the rewarding aspect of palatable foods and likely other consummatory behaviors. AN and BN tend to have premorbid traits, such as perfectionism and anxiety that make them vulnerable to using extremes of food ingestion, which serve to reduce negative mood states. Dysregulation within and/or between limbic and executive corticostriatal circuits contributes to such symptoms. Limited data support the hypothesis that reward and inhibitory processes may contribute to symptoms in eating disorders and addictive disorders, but little is known about the molecular biology of such mechanisms in terms of shared or independent processes.
HubMed – addiction

 

Is behavioral sensitization to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) mediated in part by cholinergic receptors?

Filed under: Addiction Rehab

Behav Brain Res. 2013 Feb 1;
Lettfuss NY, Seeger-Armbruster S, von Ameln-Mayerhofer A

Behavioral sensitization to the repeated administration of a psychostimulant presumably plays a key role in the pathogenesis of addiction and schizophrenia. Among other psychostimulants, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is known to produce behavioral sensitization, too, but its mechanism of action is still not fully understood. Along with the strong release of catecholamines and serotonin, MDMA exerts actions at additional transmitter systems, including acetylcholine (ACh). To identify the cholinergic involvement in the development and expression of MDMA-induced sensitization, rats were treated daily with MDMA (5.0mg/kg), MDMA plus the muscarinic antagonist atropine (4.28mg/kg), or MDMA plus the nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine (1.0mg/kg) for 13 consecutive days. The results show that atropine co-treatment was able to block the development of behavioral sensitization to MDMA, measured as horizontal activity and rearing, whereas mecamylamine did not. Pharmacological challenge with MDMA alone increased the locomotion in all substance pretreated groups with the MDMA plus atropine group showing the lowest values. The second challenge with MDMA plus atropine showed a decrease in locomotor behavior in the MDMA- and an increase in the MDMA plus atropine pretreated groups, resulting in similar levels of activity for both groups. A control experiment revealed no change in horizontal activity and rearing when only the cholinergic antagonists (atropine; mecamylamine) were administered. This is the first study that shows a substantial role of muscarinic receptors for the development of behavioral sensitization to MDMA.
HubMed – addiction

 

Level of cigarette consumption and quit behavior in a population of low-intensity smokers-Longitudinal results from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) survey in Mexico.

Filed under: Addiction Rehab

Addict Behav. 2012 Dec 16; 38(4): 1958-1965
Swayampakala K, Thrasher J, Carpenter MJ, Shigematsu LM, Cupertio AP, Berg CJ

BACKGROUND: Mexican smokers are more likely to be non-daily smokers and to consume fewer cigarettes per day than smokers in other countries. Little is known about their quit behaviors. AIM: The aim of this study is to determine factors associated with having made a quit attempt and being successfully quit at 14-month follow-up in a population-based cohort of adult Mexicans who smoke at different levels of intensity. DESIGN: A longitudinal analysis of wave-III and wave-IV (2010) Mexican administration of International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project was conducted. SETTING: This study was conducted in six large urban centers in Mexico PARTICIPANTS: The participants of this study comprised 1206 adults who were current smokers at wave-III and who were followed to wave-IV. MEASUREMENTS: We compared three groups of smokers: non-daily smokers-who did not smoke every day in the past 30days (n=398), daily light smokers who smoked every day at a rate of ?5 cigarettes per day (n=368) and daily heavy smokers who smoked every day at a rate of >5 cigarettes per day (n=434). Data on smoking behavior, psychosocial characteristics and socio-demographics were collected at baseline and after 14months. FINDINGS: In multivariate logistic regression predicting having made a quit attempt at follow-up, significant factors included being a non-daily smoker versus a heavy daily smoker (ORadj=1.83, 95% CI: 1.19-2.83), less perceived addiction (ORadj=1.86, 95% CI: 1.20-2.87), greater worry that cigarettes will damage health (ORadj=2.04, 95% CI: 1.16-3.61) and having made a quit attempt in the past year at baseline (ORadj=1.70, 95% CI: 1.23-2.36). In multivariate logistic regression predicting being successfully quit at one-year follow-up, significant factors included being a non-daily smoker versus a heavy daily smoker (ORadj=2.54, 95% CI: 1.37-4.70) and less perceived addiction (not addicted: ORadj=3.26, 95% CI: 1.73-6.14; not much: ORadj=1.95, 95% CI: 1.05-3.62 versus very much). CONCLUSIONS: Mexican adult smokers who are non-daily smokers were more likely than daily heavy smokers to have attempted to quit during follow-up and to succeed in their quit attempt. Future research should determine whether tobacco control policies and programs potentiate this tendency and which interventions are needed to help heavier smokers to quit.
HubMed – addiction

 


 

What is Integrated Treatment? – Our demonstration of what Integrated Treatment is and how important it is for long-term recovery.

 

Find More Addiction Rehab Information…