Multimodal techniques for smoking cessation: a review of their efficacy and utilisation and clinical practice guidelines.

Aims: Nicotine addiction is a complex, chronic condition with physiological and psychological/behavioural aspects that make smoking cessation extremely difficult. This paper reviews current recommendations for smoking cessation and the efficacy of pharmacotherapy and behavioural modification techniques, used either alone or in combination, for smoking cessation.

Results: Abstinence rates for pharmacotherapies range from approximately 16% to approximately 30% at 1-year follow-up, with efficacy odds ratios (ORs) compared with placebo of approximately 1.

The neurochemistry of mania: a hypothesis of etiology and rationale for treatment.

1. The author delineates the emergence of an important concept in the Neurochemistry of mental illness, that of a Cholinergic Factor in Mania. This concept which evolved steadily over a period of 22 years from 1950-1972, the author believes has given us our first significant insight into the etiology and treatment of the Manic state.

Family anxiety after traumatic events.

Victims of traumatic events--such as violent crimes, incidents of terrorism, or domestic violence--often later exhibit a variety of anxiety symptoms. The development of clinical anxiety after such tragedies may also affect the functioning of the entire family. It is vital that physicians recognize the relationship between the traumatic event and the resulting anxiety in the family.

Behavioral aspects of thyroid disease in women.

Disturbances in thyroid regulation occur much more commonly in the female population and are not infrequently associated with behavioral symptomatology. Recognition of such gender differences in associational risk is important, for it may alter the clinical algorithm of assessment techniques and treatment interventions. From a scientific standpoint, interpretation of existing data and design of future studies exploring the relationship between thyroid regulation and behavior is likely to be improved if such sex differences are more commonly recognized and addressed.

EEG alpha asymmetry in dyslexics during speaking and block design tasks.

Lateral specialization for speech and spatial construction was investigated in a highly screened group of dyslexic and normal-reading boys, age 9-13, by examining the extent to which their EEG alpha asymmetry changed from one task to the other. EEG was recorded from central, midtemporal, and parietal leads during several minutes of spontaneous narrative speech, and while the child constructed block designs. The dyslexics showed the same strongly task-dependent asymmetry as the normal readers, comparable to that observed in our adult populations.

Amino acid inhibition of sodium-dependent synaptosomal proline uptake.

The inhibitory effects of several amino acids on the synaptosomal uptake of l-proline were studied. Phenylalanine, valine, isoleucine and histidine were most inhibitory (I(50) approximately 100 muM) while leucine, serine and tyrosine had lesser inhibitory effects. The inhibition by phenylalanine and valine was of the competitive type.

Relative frequency of attribute relevance and response times in visual search.

Two experiments, one using a between-Ss and one a within-Ss design, showed that response latencies to single attribute probe stimuli were longer when the target stimulus embodied two attributes (form and color) rather than a single attribute. The magnitude of this "mixed attribute effect" was influenced by the probability of attribute relevance, but the "probability effect" was mostly due to a "repetition effect," such that latencies on trials involving repetitions of the same attribute were shorter than when the relevant attribute was shifted. Implications of these results are drawn for the issues of holistic vs attributized representation of the target stimulus and serial vs parallel search of a set of attributes.

Marijuana use among urban adults.

A relatively high proportion of young adults in San Francisco have used marijuana one or more times. The proportion in this age group who have used marijuana is as great among nonstudents as among students.