Becoming tobacco-free: Changes in staff and patient attitudes and incident reports in a large academic mental health and addictions hospital.

Background And Objective: Complete tobacco bans in mental health facilities are thought to have the potential for adverse consequences. We evaluated staff and patient attitudes and adverse events associated with implementing Canada's largest, multi-site academic psychiatric hospital tobacco ban.

Methods: A total of 1,173 staff and 422 patients completed an anonymous attitudes survey at prior to implementation (baseline), and 4-6 months and 10-12 months post-implementation.

A review of co-morbid tobacco and cannabis use disorders: possible mechanisms to explain high rates of co-use.

Background: Tobacco and cannabis are among the most commonly used psychoactive substances worldwide, and are often used in combination. Evidence suggests that tobacco use contributes to an increased likelihood of becoming cannabis dependent and similarly cannabis use promotes transition to more intensive tobacco use. Further, tobacco use threatens cannabis cessation attempts leading to increased and accelerated relapse rates among cigarette smokers.

Correlations between executive function, decision-making and impulsivity are disrupted in schizophrenia versus controls.

Schizophrenia (n=68) and control (n=62) participants matched on cigarette smoking history were assessed on executive function, decision-making and impulsivity tasks. In controls, executive function and decision-making correlated positively with each other and negatively with impulsivity. There were no inter-task correlations in schizophrenia participants.