Responses to a "Typical" Morning Dose of Kratom in People Who Use Kratom Regularly: A Direct-Observation Study.

Introduction: Use of kratom has outpaced systematic study of its effects, with most studies reliant on retrospective self-report.

Methods: We aimed to assess acute effects following kratom use in adults who use regularly, and quantify alkaloids in the products, urine, and plasma. Between July and November 2022, 10 adults came to our clinic and orally self-administered their typical kratom dose; blinding procedures were not used.

Lactoferrin supplementation for taste and smell abnormalities among patients receiving cancer chemotherapy.

Purpose: Taste and smell abnormalities (TSA) are common in patients receiving chemotherapy and may lead to altered nutritional intake, treatment withdrawal, and impaired quality of life. Lipid peroxidation in the oral cavity is one cause of TSA. Lactoferrin (LFN), an iron-binding salivary protein, reduces production of lipid oxidation byproducts and has been shown to reduce perception of unpleasant flavors.

Retrospective Analysis of Cisplatin Nephrotoxicity in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Receiving Outpatient Treatment With Concurrent High-dose Cisplatin and Radiotherapy.

Objectives: Cisplatin remains the pivotal chemotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), with nephrotoxicity considered the dose-limiting toxicity. The purpose of our study was to propose an outpatient high-dose cisplatin protocol aimed at preventing nephrotoxicity and to analyze the results of its utilization in patients with SCCHN treated with concurrent radiotherapy.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 82 SCCHN patients treated with outpatient high-dose cisplatin concurrent with radiotherapy at our institution.

Nicotine enhances alerting, but not executive, attention in smokers and nonsmokers.

Introduction: Difficulty concentrating is a symptom of nicotine withdrawal that can contribute to relapse in individuals trying to quit smoking. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of nicotine on executive and alerting attention in smokers and nonsmokers.

Methods: Thirty daily smokers who were not tobacco deprived and 30 nonsmokers participated in the study.

Prolonged duration of craving, mood, and autonomic responses elicited by cues and imagery in smokers: Effects of tobacco deprivation and sex.

Increases in self-reported craving and changes in autonomic functioning are reliably elicited when smokers are exposed to tobacco-related stimuli compared with neutral stimuli. However, few studies have reported the time course of cue-elicited craving or have directly compared the effectiveness of smoking cues versus imagery to evoke a craving response. In addition to these two issues, we investigated the influence of tobacco deprivation and sex on craving, mood, and autonomic responses.

Verrucous carcinoma of the foot and enhancement assessment by MRI.

Verrucous carcinoma (VC), also known as epithelioma cuniculatum, of the foot is an uncommon low-grade squamous cell carcinoma with slow, progressive local invasion with minimal dysplasia and low potential for metastasis. We report on a case of VC and the enhancement pattern associated with it on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MR imaging revealed a plantar ulcer with an interesting pattern of enhancement at the base of the mass.

Dose-related enhancement of mood and cognition in smokers administered nicotine nasal spray.

The discovery of the role of nicotinic receptors in attention and memory has led to the testing of nicotinic analogs as cognitive enhancing agents in patient populations. Empirical information about nicotine's ability to enhance elements of attention and memory in normal individuals might guide development of therapeutic uses of nicotine in cognitively impaired populations. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nicotine on continuous attention, working memory, and computational processing in tobacco-deprived and nondeprived smokers.

Consistency of subjective responses to imagery-induced tobacco craving over multiple sessions.

Although studies have demonstrated the validity of imagery procedures to elicit tobacco craving responses in single sessions, few studies have examined the consistency of responding in the same individuals over multiple experimental sessions. In this study, nondeprived smokers were presented with a randomized series of imagery scripts that varied in the intensity of smoking-urge content. At each of five sessions spaced over several weeks, participants were exposed to six imagery trials (two each of no-, low-, and high-intensity imagery scripts).

Effect of tobacco deprivation on the attentional blink in rapid serial visual presentation.

When two targets are imbedded in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), identification of the second target (T2) is impaired if it occurs within 500 ms of the first target (T1). This attentional blink (AB) is thought to involve interference of resources in processing T1 and T2. The deleterious effect of tobacco deprivation on attention has been documented, but no studies have examined the AB.

Effect of tobacco craving cues on memory encoding and retrieval in smokers.

Previous studies have shown that cue-elicited tobacco craving disrupted performance on cognitive tasks; however, no study has examined directly the effect of cue-elicited craving on memory encoding and retrieval. A distinction between encoding and retireval has been reported such that memory is more impaired when attention is divided at encoding than at retrieval. This study tested the hypothesis that active imagery of smoking situations would impair encoding processes, but have little effect on retrieval.

Determination of the reliability and validity of the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire using imagery scripts.

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire (MCQ) by using active imagery of auditorily presented scripts. Current marijuana users (n = 48) imagined scripts that varied in amount of descriptors of desire to smoke marijuana, from no-urge to high-urge content. Self-reported marijuana craving significantly increased as a function of script-urge intensity on Factors 1, 3, and 4 of the MCQ.