Can the spirit of motivational interviewing be taught online? A comparative study in general practitioners.

Objective: Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based approach to enhance patients' motivation and is increasingly in demand in medical practice. Online teaching methods offer advantages to train health care professionals, but only very few studies examined whether MI-specific interviewing skills (""MI-skills""), and especially MIspecific attitudes (the "MI-spirit"), can be taught online and whether learning gains differ from those in face-to-face courses. This study compared the effects of 7 h of basic training for experienced general practitioners (GP) in either an online or a traditional face-to-face format with a non-trained control group.

"Tobacco dependence treatment makes no sense because"…: rebuttal of commonly-heard arguments against providing tobacco dependence treatment in the hospital setting.

Background: The provision of tobacco dependence treatment in health care settings, particularly in countries lacking a history of strong tobacco control policy implementation, is limited by continued misconceptions on the part of health professionals and decision-makers regarding its worth and efficacy. In this paper, we rebut 9 arguments against the provision of tobacco dependence treatment that we have encountered in our experiences implementing and maintaining a dedicated smoking cessation service at a large university hospital in southern Germany.

Discussion: Broadly, the arguments relate to the nature of addiction, the efficacy and safety of stop-smoking medication and behavioural support, and the benefits and challenges of quitting.

Sleep changes in smokers before, during and 3 months after nicotine withdrawal.

Nicotine may affect sleep by influencing sleep-regulating neurotransmitters. Sleep disorders can increase the risk for depression and substance dependency. To detect the influence of sleep disturbances on the effect of smoking cessation, we investigated polysomnographically (PSG) the sleep of smoking subjects during a period of smoking, during withdrawal and after a period of abstinence from nicotine.

Implementation and effectiveness of a hospital smoking cessation service in Germany.

Objective: Hospitalized smokers are often highly motivated to quit and receptive to assistance. There are few published accounts of hospital-based smoking cessation programmes implemented outside of a trial setting, particularly outside North America. We describe the implementation and effectiveness of a dedicated smoking cessation service in Freiburg, Germany.

How smoking affects sleep: a polysomnographical analysis.

Objective: Subjective quality of sleep is impaired in smokers compared with non-smokers, but there is only limited evidence from methodologically sound studies about differences in polysomnography (PSG) sleep characteristics. Therefore, this study used PSG to evaluate sleep in smokers and non-smokers while controlling for other parameters that affect sleep.

Methods: After an adaptation night, PSG sleep laboratory data were obtained from 44 smokers (29 men and 15 women, median age 29.

Impaired sleep quality and sleep duration in smokers-results from the German Multicenter Study on Nicotine Dependence.

Cigarette smoking is a severe health burden being related to a number of chronic diseases. Frequently, smokers report about sleep problems. Sleep disturbance, in turn, has been demonstrated to be involved in the pathophysiology of several disorders related to smoking and may be relevant for the pathophysiology of nicotine dependence.

The efficacy of stepped care models involving psychosocial treatment of alcohol use disorders and nicotine dependence: a systematic review of the literature.

Of particular interest in the psychosocial treatment of addictions is determining how much therapy is required to bring about behaviour change. Stepped care approaches, where non-responders to a less intensive therapy receive a more intensive intervention, aim to only provide intensive assistance to those who need it, thereby allocating therapeutic resources more efficiently. This paper provides a systematic review of stepped care models involving different levels of psychosocial intervention for the treatment of alcohol use disorders and smoking cessation.

What works for patients in outpatient treatment for alcohol addiction? An explorative study into clients' evaluation of subjective factors and therapy satisfaction.

This explorative survey investigated clients' evaluation of therapy elements and other supportive factors within a randomized controlled trial. The treatment of patients with alcohol dependence consisted of pharmacotherapy (acamprosate/naltrexone/placebo) and biweekly medical management (MM). Forty-nine study participants were surveyed with a questionnaire to measure both the patients' satisfaction with the therapy and the subjective assessment of treatment elements and supportive factors.

Effects of nicotine on sleep during consumption, withdrawal and replacement therapy.

Smoking constitutes the most important behavioural health risk in the Western world. By acting on various neurotransmitter systems, nicotine consumption also influences sleep and mood. Studies on the relationship between smoking, sleep disturbances, sleep-related disorders and depression led to dissimilar results.