A Prospective, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study of Orbital Radiotherapy for Graves' Ophthalmopathy.

Context: Although widely used for more than 85 years, the efficacy of radiotherapy for Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) has not been established convincingly.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy for GO.

Design: Prospective, randomized, internally controlled, double-blind clinical trial in a tertiary care academic medical center.

Tobacco cessation treatment for Alaska native adolescents: group randomized pilot trial.

Introduction: Tobacco cessation treatments have not been evaluated among Alaska Native (AN) adolescents. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and the potential efficacy of a targeted cessation intervention for AN youth using a group randomized design.

Methods: Eight villages in western Alaska were randomly assigned to receive the intervention (n = 4 villages) or a delayed treatment control condition (written materials only; n = 4 villages).

Development of a tobacco cessation intervention for Alaska Native youth.

Tobacco cessation treatments have not been evaluated among Alaska Native (AN) adolescents. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a targeted cessation intervention developed for AN youth. Intervention components were informed by prior focus groups assessing treatment preferences among AN youth, a social cognitive theoretical framework and feedback obtained from a teen advisory group.

Web-based intervention for adolescent nonsmokers to help parents stop smoking: a pilot feasibility study.

A novel approach to tobacco control is to engage adolescent nonsmokers in support roles to encourage and help their parents stop smoking. This pilot study examined the feasibility and potential efficacy of a web-based support skills training (SST) intervention for adolescents to help a parent stop smoking. Forty nonsmoking adolescents 13-19 years of age (70% female, 93% White) were enrolled and randomly assigned to a health education (HE) control group (n=20) or SST (n=20).

Support-person promotion of a smoking quitline: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Quitlines and other evidence-based cessation treatments are greatly underutilized by smokers, limiting their public health impact. Social support is correlated with successful cessation. Thus, efforts targeting the social network of smokers could be a potential avenue to promote quitline utilization.

Clinician-delivered intervention to facilitate tobacco quitline use by surgical patients.

Background: Telephone quitlines that provide counseling support are efficacious in helping cigarette smokers quit and have been widely disseminated; currently, they are underused. Surgery represents a teachable moment for smoking cessation, which can benefit surgical outcomes; however, few surgical patients receive smoking cessation interventions. This study developed and tested a clinician-delivered intervention to facilitate quitline use by adult patients scheduled for elective surgery.

Willingness of cancer patients to help family members to quit smoking.

Objectives: The impact of social support on successful smoking cessation has been well documented. However, little is known about whether personal experience with cancer may motivate cancer survivors to support smoking cessation among their family members and friends. As a first step in this line of research, we sought to explore interest in playing a supportive role for smoking cessation as well as correlates of such interest among cancer survivors.

The association of alcohol consumption with tobacco use in Black and White college students.

This study explored the association of alcohol and tobacco use among college students. A survey was administered in 2004 to 2,189 Black and White students from the southeastern United States. The prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use, tobacco use characteristics according to level of alcohol consumed, and percentage of students using tobacco according to type of alcoholic beverages consumed were evaluated.

Validation of the support provided measure among spouses of smokers receiving a clinical smoking cessation intervention.

Studies indicate a positive association between social support and smoking cessation. However, clinic-based interventions designed to increase social support have had limited success. Most studies have relied on only the smoker's perceptions of support received while few have assessed the support provider's report of support delivered.

Personality characteristics of health care satisfaction survey non-respondents.

Purpose: Patient satisfaction surveys are increasingly used to assess the quality of health care delivery. Unfortunately, survey non-response may compromise generalizability (and inferential value). Although prior studies demonstrate an association between patient socio-demographic variables and response rate, relatively little information is available linking personality factors to non-response.

A randomized, controlled trial of bupropion sustained-release for preventing tobacco relapse in recovering alcoholics.

Introduction: Studies examining the efficacy of tobacco dependence treatment among recovering alcoholic smokers have produced mixed findings. We set out to investigate this issue further by conducting a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of bupropion sustained-release (SR) for smoking relapse prevention among abstinent alcoholic smokers.

Methods: Participants (N = 195) met DSM-IV criteria for a history of alcohol abuse or dependence and had at least 1 year of continuous abstinence from alcohol and drugs.

Feasibility of a telephone-based intervention for support persons to help smokers quit: a pilot study.

Background: Nonsmokers have a potentially supportive role in tobacco cessation efforts. The present study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a telephone-based intervention for nonsmoking support persons.

Methods: A total of 59 support persons (mean age = 36 years, 92% female, 95% White) were randomly assigned to a control condition (N = 30; written materials only) or to a social cognitive theory-based intervention (N = 29; written materials and 5 weekly, 20- to 30-min telephone counseling sessions).

The MMPI-2: a contemporary normative study of midwestern family medicine outpatients.

For more than 60 years it has been known that profiles from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), obtained from medical patients, are elevated when scores are plotted using general population norms. These elevations have been most apparent on the neurotic triad (NTd), the first 3 clinical scales on the MMPI profile. More than 45 years have passed since a nonreferred, normative sample of MMPIs was established from 50,000 consecutive medical outpatients.

Telephone quitlines to help surgical patients quit smoking patient and provider attitudes.

Background: The scheduling of elective surgery provides an excellent opportunity for cigarette smoking-cessation interventions. Abstinence from smoking may improve immediate surgical outcomes, and the surgical period represents a teachable moment for modifying smoking behavior. However, a variety of barriers to intervention exist.

Support person intervention to promote smoker utilization of the QUITPLAN Helpline.

Background: Effective cessation services are greatly underutilized by smokers. Only about 1.5% of smokers in Minnesota utilize the state-funded QUITPLAN Helpline.

Willingness among college students to help a smoker quit.

Objective: Between February and March 2003, the authors examined college students' willingness to help a smoker quit and assessed demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with willingness to help.

Participants: Survey respondents were 701 college students (474 women, 227 men) aged 18 to 24 years who indicated there was someone close to them whom they thought should quit smoking.

Methods: Respondents completed measures of willingness to help.

Evaluation of a Tobacco Educational Intervention for Pregnant Alaska Native Women.

Tobacco cessation interventions developed and evaluated for Alaska Native women do not exist. As part of routine clinical care provided at a prenatal visit, a brief tobacco educational intervention for Alaska Native pregnant women (N=100; mean ± SD age = 25.9±6.

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.

Pessimism and hostility scores as predictors of patient satisfaction ratings by medical out-patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine whether a pessimistic or hostile personality style adversely affects satisfaction with out-patient medical visits. Many patient and health care provider demographic characteristics have been related to patient satisfaction with a health care encounter, but little has been written about the association between patients' personality characteristics and their satisfaction ratings.

Design/methodology/approach: An eight-item patient satisfaction survey was completed by 11,636 randomly selected medical out-patients two to three months after their episode of care.

Development and feasibility of a parental support intervention for adolescent smokers.

The aim of this investigation was to develop and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a parental support intervention. A new measure of perceived parental support for stopping smoking was also developed. The sample included 59 adolescent-parent pairs recruited from a mid-sized Midwestern town during 2000-2003.

Tobacco use and cessation among pregnant Alaska Natives from Western Alaska enrolled in the WIC program, 2001-2002.

Objectives: This study examined the rate of tobacco use (cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco [ST]) at three time points: during the 3 months before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and at 6 weeks postpartum among Alaska Native women residing in the Y-K Delta region of Western Alaska.

Methods: A retrospective, non-randomized observational cohort design was utilized. The sample consisted of 832 Alaska Natives (mean maternal age = 26.

Focus groups of Alaska Native adolescent tobacco users: preferences for tobacco cessation interventions and barriers to participation.

Tobacco cessation interventions developed for Alaska Native adolescents do not exist. This study employed focus group methodology to explore preferences for tobacco cessation interventions and barriers to participation among 49 Alaska Natives (61% female) with a mean age of 14.6 (SD = 1.

Frequency and type of use of a home-based, Internet intervention for adolescent smoking cessation.

Purpose: The Internet offers a potential medium for delivering smoking cessation treatment to adolescents. However, few Internet-based cessation programs for adolescents have been evaluated. We describe adolescent use of a home-based Internet intervention to stop smoking (Stomp Out Smokes [SOS]) and explore baseline characteristics associated with SOS use.

Development of a telephone-based intervention for support persons to help smokers quit.

This study represents the first step toward systematic behavioral treatment development and pilot testing of a novel approach to smoking cessation that utilizes adults interested in helping someone to stop smoking (i.e., support persons) as the agent of change.