VA Puget Sound Telemental Health Service to rural veterans: a growing program.

The VA Puget Sound Health Care System Telemental Health program connects veterans with psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers via live clinical video teleconferencing. Providers deliver care to veterans in rural Veteran Affairs medical centers, community-based outpatient clinics and residences, and thus, increase access to specialty mental health care for rural and medically underserved veteran communities.

Phone and web-based tobacco cessation treatment: real-world utilization patterns and outcomes for 11,000 tobacco users.

Background: Phone-based tobacco cessation programs have been proven effective and widely adopted. Web-based solutions exist; however, the evidence base is not yet well established. Many cessation treatments are commercially available, but few integrate the phone and Web for delivery and no published studies exist for integrated programs.

Alcohol-aggression expectancies and dispositional rumination moderate the effect of alcohol consumption on alcohol-related aggression and hostility.

Alcohol consumption increases aggression, but only in some drinkers. This study extends previous work to show how expectancies for alcohol-induced aggression and dispositional rumination moderate the link between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related aggression and hostility in a sample of 285 men and women. Alcohol-aggression expectancies and quantity of alcohol interacted to predict alcohol-related hostility and aggression.

Decreased respiratory symptoms in cannabis users who vaporize.

Cannabis smoking can create respiratory problems. Vaporizers heat cannabis to release active cannabinoids, but remain cool enough to avoid the smoke and toxins associated with combustion. Vaporized cannabis should create fewer respiratory symptoms than smoked cannabis.

Simultaneous alcohol and cannabis expectancies predict simultaneous use.

Background: Simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis predicts increased negative consequences for users beyond individual or even concurrent use of the two drugs. Given the widespread use of the drugs and common simultaneous consumption, problems unique to simultaneous use may bear important implications for many substance users. Cognitive expectancies offer a template for future drug use behavior based on previous drug experiences, accurately predicting future use and problems.

Cannabis, motivation, and life satisfaction in an internet sample.

Although little evidence supports cannabis-induced amotivational syndrome, sources continue to assert that the drug saps motivation 1, which may guide current prohibitions. Few studies report low motivation in chronic users; another reveals that they have higher subjective wellbeing. To assess differences in motivation and subjective wellbeing, we used a large sample (N = 487) and strict definitions of cannabis use (7 days/week) and abstinence (never).

Confirming alcohol-moderated links between cannabis use and dependence in a national sample.

The present study confirmed findings that alcohol moderates the link between cannabis use and dependence. The study examined a large, diverse national sample of 856 people who consumed cannabis and alcohol at least twice per week. The study possesses several methodological improvements over past research, including less subjective measures of cannabis use and interview-based data collection.

Alcohol consumption moderates the link between cannabis use and cannabis dependence in an internet survey.

The link between cannabis use and cannabis dependence remains poorly understood. Some people use cannabis regularly without signs of dependence; others show dependence despite using less. This study examined alcohol consumption as a moderator of this association.