Changes in readiness to quit and self-efficacy among adolescents receiving a brief office intervention for smoking cessation.

Purpose: To examine changes in readiness to quit and self-efficacy among adolescents who received a clinic-based, brief office intervention (BOI) for smoking cessation.

Methods: This study utilized a prospective, pre-post- treatment design. Participants were adolescent smokers (34 females, 35 males) with a mean +/- SD age of 15.

Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a clinic-based counseling intervention tested in an ethnically diverse sample of pregnant smokers.

Objective: Rates of cigarette smoking are higher among women who receive obstetric care through publicly funded prenatal clinics. This study compared smoking outcomes for pregnant women (n=105) who were randomized to receive either usual care (standard cessation advice from the health care provider) or an intervention conducted in the prenatal clinic consisting of 1.5 h of counseling plus telephone follow-up delivered by a masters prepared mental health counselor.

Ethnic variation in socioenvironmental factors that influence adolescent smoking.

Purpose: To compare black, Hispanic and white adolescent smokers on socioenvironmental factors associated with smoking.

Methods: The study uses a cross-sectional design. A needs assessment of 1305 current, former and never adolescent smokers from four ethnically and geographically diverse sites in the United States was conducted in 1999.

Ghost anemone dermatitis.

Background: Haloclava producta, the "ghost anemone", is a burrowing sea anemone in estuarine sediments of the US East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. It has never been identified as harmful to human beings; however, residents of Long Island, New York develop a pruritic, erythematous, vesiculopapular dermatitis on areas of the body that contact these organisms. Neither the condition nor its cause has been described in the medical literature.

Neurocutaneous disorders.

"Neurocutaneous disorders" is a catch-all phrase that includes all disorders involving both the nervous systems and the skin. These may range from disorders in which cutaneous findings are essential to diagnosis to those with less significant involvement of the skin. Because of the variety of disorders that involve the skin and the nervous system, this article reviews a few of the more essential diagnoses, and those with recent advancements in diagnosis and management.