Motivated reasoning and scientific racism in compulsion theory of human addiction: Methodological framework to promote social justice.

Heinz et al. (2024) recently criticised habit/compulsion theory of human addiction but nevertheless concluded that 'habit formation plays a significant role in drug addiction'. To challenge this causal claim, the current article develops four further methodological criticisms, that publications supporting the habit/compulsion account of human addiction: (1) under-report contradictory observations; (2) exaggerate the process purity of positive observations; (3) under-emphasise the low quality of epidemiological support for a causal hypothesis; (4) recapitulate the social injustice of racial intelligence era by prematurely attributing lower task performance to drug user group membership (endophenotype) without having adequately tested social, psychological, economic and environmental inequalities.

Monitoring immunE DysregulAtion foLLowing Immune checkpOint-inhibitioN (MEDALLION): protocol for an observational cancer immunotherapy cohort study.

Background: Checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) are widely used in cancer treatment, with transformative impacts on survival. They nonetheless carry a significant risk of toxicity in the form of immune-related adverse events (IrAEs), which may be sustained and life-altering. IrAEs may require high-dose and/or prolonged steroid use and represent a significant healthcare burden.

Coping motives as a mediator of the relationship between child maltreatment and substance use problems in south African adolescents.

Background: Evidence suggests that adults with a history of child maltreatment (CM) engage in substance misuse driven by 'coping motives': maladaptive beliefs that substances help them cope with negative emotions. However, the specificity of this risk pathway is under-researched in younger and non-Western cohorts.

Objective: The present study aimed to determine whether coping motives play a distinct role compared to other motives for substance use in mediating the relationship between CM and problematic alcohol and marijuana use in a sample of South African adolescents.

Brief online negative affect focused functional imagery training (FIT) improves four-week drinking outcomes in hazardous student drinkers: A pilot randomised controlled trial replication in South Africa.

Background: Previous study has shown that functional imagery training (FIT) to utilise positive mental imagery in response to negative affect could improve alcohol-related outcomes. The current study aimed to replicate whether this negative affect focused FIT would improve alcohol-related outcomes in hazardous student drinkers in South Africa at four-week follow-up.

Methods: 50 hazardous student drinkers who reported drinking to cope with negative affect were randomised into two groups.

Ultra-Brief Breath Counting (Mindfulness) Training Abolishes Negative Affect-Induced Alcohol Motivation in Hazardous Community Drinkers.

Objectives: Mindfulness therapy improves drinking outcomes arguably by attenuating negative mood-induced drinking, but this mechanism has not been demonstrated in hazardous community drinkers. To address this, three studies tested whether a key ingredient of mindfulness, breath counting, would attenuate the increase in motivation for alcohol produced by experimentally induced negative mood, in hazardous community drinkers.

Method: In three studies, hazardous community drinkers were randomized to receive either a 6-min breath counting training or listen to a recited extract from a popular science book, before all participants received a negative mood induction.