Nicotine without smoke: new RCP report on e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction

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Debutant blogger and vaping activist Lorien Jollye presents a new tobacco harm reduction report from the Tobacco Advisory Group of the Royal College of Physicians.

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Smoking cessation interventions for head and neck cancer patients

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This review of smoking cessation for patients with head and neck cancer included 8 studies ( 3 RCTs) and suggests that those receiving counseling had a 26% higher quit rate than with controls

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Nicotine patches, Varenicline and combination NRT: as good/bad as each other?

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Paul Christiansen considers the findings of a recent RCT, which evaluates the effects of nicotine patches versus varenicline versus combination nicotine replacement therapy on smoking cessation at 26 weeks.

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Should we stigmatise smokers?

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Andrew Jones on a recent systematic review that brings together quantitative and qualitative research about the positive and negative impact of tobacco cessation campaigns and measures. The review concludes that stigmatising of smoking can lead to unintended consequences, such as increased stress, social isolation and smoking relapse.

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Are Internet interventions cost-effective for mental health?

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Chris Sampson looks at a systematic review of the economics of Internet interventions for common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

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Smoking and chronic mental illness: what’s the best way to quit or cut down?

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Meg Fluharty considers the findings of a BMJ State of the Art review, which looks at the evidence for smoking cessation in people with chronic mental illness such as schizophrenia, unipolar depression, bipolar depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD.

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Smoking and tooth loss associated finds study

Smoking man

This large German cohort study with 23,376 participants found that smoking was associated with tooth loss with heavy males smokers (≥15 cigarettes per day) having a 3 times higher tooth loss.

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SMS texting to quit smoking: a meta-analysis of text messaging interventions for smoking cessation

Text message

Olivia Maynard reviews a new meta-analysis of SMS text messaging for smoking cessation and reveals that this intervention is not as effective as other methods of helping people quit smoking.

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