Therapeutic vapes for smoking cessation and nicotine dependence.

The Australian Government has enacted laws restricting the supply of electronic cigarettes (vapes) to people requiring them for smoking cessation or the treatment of nicotine dependence, under the care of a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or pharmacist. Currently no vapes are included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, meaning that the prescription and supply of therapeutic vapes must be through the Special Access Scheme or Authorised Prescriber pathways. Clinical guidelines state that therapeutic vapes may be considered for supporting people who have been unable to quit smoking using first-line therapies (a combination of behavioural support and registered nicotine replacement therapies or oral smoking cessation medicines).

'Quitlink': Outcomes of a randomised controlled trial of peer researcher facilitated referral to a tailored quitline tobacco treatment for people receiving mental health services.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a tailored quitline tobacco treatment ('Quitlink') among people receiving support for mental health conditions.

Methods: We employed a prospective, cluster-randomised, open, blinded endpoint design to compare a control condition to our 'Quitlink' intervention. Both conditions received a brief intervention delivered by a peer researcher.

The value of compassionate support to address smoking: A qualitative study with people who experience severe mental illness.

Introduction: People experiencing severe mental illness (SMI) smoke at much higher rates than the general population and require additional support. Engagement with existing evidence-based interventions such as quitlines and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) may be improved by mental health peer worker involvement and tailored support. This paper reports on a qualitative study nested within a peer researcher-facilitated tobacco treatment trial that included brief advice plus, for those in the intervention group, tailored quitline callback counseling and combination NRT.

Adapting Peer Researcher Facilitated Strategies to Recruit People Receiving Mental Health Services to a Tobacco Treatment Trial.

Introduction: One of the most challenging aspects of conducting intervention trials among people who experience severe mental illness (SMI) and who smoke tobacco, is recruitment. In our parent "QuitLink" randomized controlled trial (RCT), slower than expected peer researcher facilitated recruitment, along with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, necessitated an adaptive recruitment response. The objectives of the present study were to: (i) describe adaptive peer researcher facilitated recruitment strategies; (ii) explore the effectiveness of these strategies; (iii) investigate whether recruitment strategies reached different subgroups of participants; and (iv) examine the costs and resources required for implementing these strategies.

Protocol for an Economic Evaluation of the Quitlink Randomized Controlled Trial for Accessible Smoking Cessation Support for People With Severe Mental Illness.

Smoking is a major cause of disease burden and reduced quality of life for people with severe mental illness (SMI). It places significant resource pressure on health systems and financial stress on smokers with SMI (SSMI). Telephone-based smoking cessation interventions have been shown to be cost effective in general populations.

Staying Quit After Release (SQuARe) trial protocol: a randomised controlled trial of a multicomponent intervention to maintain smoking abstinence after release from smoke-free prisons in Victoria, Australia.

Introduction: Smoke-free policies have been introduced in prisons internationally. However, high rates of relapse to smoking after release from prison indicate that these policies typically result in short-term smoking cessation only. These high rates of relapse, combined with a lack of investment in relapse prevention, highlight a missed opportunity to improve the health of a population who smoke tobacco at two to six times the rate of the general population.

The INSPIRED study: a randomised controlled trial of the Whole Person Model of disease self-management for people with type 2 diabetes.

Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in the last decade, and is continuing to rise. It is a chronic condition, often related to obesity, diet and sedentary lifestyles, and can lead to significant health complications, disability and early death. Diabetes is commonly associated with depression, which can impact significantly on a person's ability to manage their illness and, consequently, on disease outcomes.