Understanding use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation among a sample of US adults.

Introduction: Many adults who smoke cigarettes report trying e-cigarettes to quit smoking. Understanding the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and the type of support that adults desire when trying to quit smoking is important for supporting cessation attempts and maximizing smoking abstinence.

Methods: In summer 2021, an online survey of 857 adults who reported a history of regular cigarette smoking and endorsed using e-cigarettes in a recent smoking cessation attempt was conducted.

Words matter: descriptors for nicotine that comes from tobacco and descriptors for synthetic nicotine that is created in a laboratory differentially impact understanding of nicotine source and risk perceptions.

Background: Nicotine products increasingly contain synthetic nicotine made in a lab (NML), not from tobacco. 'Tobacco-free nicotine' is most often used to describe NML commercially, but other descriptors are emerging (eg, 'non-tobacco,' 'zero-tobacco'). We examined whether terms for NML differentially impact public understanding of nicotine source or risk perceptions relative to each other and to terms for describing nicotine from tobacco (NFT) as 'tobacco-derived.

Smartband-based smoking detection and real-time brief mindfulness intervention: findings from a feasibility clinical trial.

Background: Smartbands can be used to detect cigarette smoking and deliver real time smoking interventions. Brief mindfulness interventions have been found to reduce smoking.

Objective: This single arm feasibility trial used a smartband to detect smoking and deliver brief mindfulness exercises.

How healthcare providers and the right information may play a critical role in quitting success among smokers interested in using e-cigarettes for quitting: Results from a survey of U.S adults.

Introduction: Promoting smoking cessation is a global public health priority. E-cigarettes are increasingly being used by individuals to try quitting smoking. Identifying sources and types of information available to adults who are trying to quit, and the impact of this information during a quit attempt, is critical to augment the potential public health benefit of e-cigarettes for reducing cigarette smoking.

Evidence that personalized racial stress procedures elicit a stress response and increases alcohol craving among Black adults with alcohol use disorder: A laboratory pilot study.

Background: The objective of this study was to pilot test newly developed personalized imagery procedures to investigate the impact of racial stress on alcohol craving and emotional and physiological response in Black adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Methods: Twenty Black adults (45% women, mean=37.05, SD=13.

Reductions in World Health Organization risk drinking level are associated with improvements in sleep problems among individuals with alcohol use disorder.

Aims: Among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), sleep disturbances are pervasive and contribute to the etiology and maintenance of AUD. However, despite increased attention toward the relationship between alcohol use and sleep, limited empirical research has systematically examined whether reductions in drinking during treatment for AUD are associated with improvements in sleep problems.

Methods: We used data from a multisite, randomized, controlled trial that compared 6 months of treatment with gabapentin enacarbil extended-release with placebo for adults with moderate-to-severe AUD (N = 346).

Reductions in World Health Organization Risk Drinking Level Are Associated With Reductions in Alcohol Use Disorder Diagnosis and Criteria: Evidence From an Alcohol Pharmacotherapy Trial.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the validity of World Health Organization (WHO) risk drinking level reductions as meaningful endpoints for clinical practice and research. This study examined whether such reductions were associated with a lower likelihood of a current alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis and fewer AUD criteria.

Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis to address these objectives using data from a multisite randomized controlled trial of gabapentin enacarbil extended release in treating moderate to severe AUD among adults (N = 346).

The Scientific Basis for the Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products.

Effective tobacco policies are important for reducing the harm of tobacco use and can have a broad impact at the population level. This review provides an overview of how clinical science can inform tobacco policies with a focus on policies related to flavored tobacco products, using menthol cigarettes as an illustrative example. Specifically, this review summarizes the role of flavors in tobacco use and the history of regulation of flavored tobacco products by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), provides an overview of clinical research methods used to contribute to the scientific evidence to inform FDA tobacco policies, discusses key findings related to menthol tobacco products using these methods, and proposes future directions for clinical research.

Impaired Control (Both Attempts to Control Drinking and Failed Control) as Prospective Predictors of Negative Outcomes Among Young Adults Who Drink Heavily.

Objective: Impaired control over alcohol is a hallmark of addiction relevant to young adults, but additional prospective findings are needed, particularly in samples reporting heavy drinking. Further, we lack understanding of how attempts and failed efforts to control drinking relate to each other in predicting outcomes. We hypothesized that attempted and failed control would prospectively predict outcomes, with endorsement of both being especially problematic.

Reductions in WHO risk drinking levels correlate with alcohol craving among individuals with alcohol use disorder.

Background: Abstinence has historically been considered the preferred goal of alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment. However, most individuals with AUD do not want to abstain and many are able to reduce their drinking successfully. Craving is often a target of pharmacological and behavioral interventions for AUD, and reductions in craving may signal recovery.

Evidence of subgroup differences in meta-analyses evaluating medications for alcohol use disorder: An umbrella review.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD) often examine heterogeneity of treatment effects through subgroup analyses that contrast effect estimates in groups of patients across individual demographic, clinical, and study design-related characteristics. However, these analyses are often not prespecified or adequately powered, highlighting the potential role of subgroup analyses in meta-analysis. Here, we conducted an umbrella review (i.

Effect of a Personalized Tobacco Treatment Intervention on Smoking Abstinence in Individuals Eligible for Lung Cancer Screening.

Introduction: To determine whether personalized gain-framed messaging and biomarker feedback related to tobacco cessation or reduction decrease smoking behavior in patients undergoing or eligible for lung cancer screening.

Methods: Between 2016 and 2020, 188 patients were enrolled in a two-phase, sequential, randomized controlled trial. Phase 1 evaluated whether standard of care (SC) (five in-person counseling sessions and 8 weeks of nicotine patch) plus gain-framed messaging (GFM) versus SC would increase 8-week biochemically verified smoking cessation rates.

A thematic analysis of stress, substance-cue, and neutral/relaxing events to inform approaches for improving treatment among Black adults who use substances.

Introduction: To inform approaches for adapting substance use treatment for Black adults, the aim of this study was to thematically analyze the stressors, triggers for substance use, and neutral/relaxing events reported among Black adults who participated in a lab paradigm.

Methods: The sample included 36 Black adults (mean age [years] = 37.47, SD = 7.

Imaging the brain's immune response to alcohol with [C]PBR28 TSPO Positron Emission Tomography.

In humans, the negative effects of alcohol are linked to immune dysfunction in both the periphery and the brain. Yet acute effects of alcohol on the neuroimmune system and its relationships with peripheral immune function are not fully understood. To address this gap, immune response to an alcohol challenge was measured with positron emission tomography (PET) using the radiotracer [C]PBR28, which targets the 18-kDa translocator protein, a marker sensitive to immune challenges.

In what settings and social contexts do young adults vape or smoke cannabis? Findings from a web-based diary pilot study.

Background: Vaping is an increasingly common mode of cannabis use among young adults. Despite potential to inform targeted prevention, settings and social contexts where young adults vape and/or smoke cannabis have rarely been investigated. We addressed this question in a diverse young adult sample.

Synthetic Cooling Agent in Oral Nicotine Pouch Products Marketed as "Flavor-Ban Approved".

Background: US sales of oral nicotine pouches (ONPs) have rapidly increased, with cool/mint-flavored ONPs the most popular. Restrictions on sales of flavored tobacco products have either been implemented or proposed by several US states and localities. Zyn, the most popular ONP brand, is marketing Zyn-"Chill" and Zyn-"Smooth" as "Flavor-Ban Approved", probably to evade flavor bans.

Combination treatment with varenicline and naltrexone reduces World Health Organization risk drinking levels.

Background: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration identifies abstinence and the absence of heavy drinking days as outcomes for pharmacotherapy trials for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Cigarette Smoking in Response to COVID-19: Examining Co-Morbid Medical Conditions and Risk Perceptions.

During the initial wave of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the U.S., information was mixed about the relative COVID-19 risks and potential benefits associated with cigarette smoking.

Differences in the association between kappa opioid receptors and pain among Black and White adults with alcohol use disorders.

Background: The relationship between alcohol and pain is complex. Associations between pain and alcohol use disorder (AUD) vary by race, but the underlying biological basis is not understood. We examined the association of the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) with responses to the cold-pressor test (CPT), before and after treatment with the opioid antagonist naltrexone, among individuals with AUD who self-identified as Black or White.

Predictors of abstinence, no heavy drinking days, and a 2-level reduction in World Health Organization drinking levels during treatment for alcohol use disorder in the COMBINE study.

Background: Data from trials of medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be used to identify predictors of drinking outcomes regardless of treatment, which can inform the design of future trials with heterogeneous populations. Here, we identified predictors of abstinence, no heavy drinking days, and a 2-level reduction in World Health Organization (WHO) drinking levels during treatment for AUD in the Combined Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Interventions (COMBINE) Study.

Methods: We utilized data from the COMBINE Study, a randomized placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of naltrexone and acamprosate, both alone and in combination, for AUD (n = 1168).