OBJECTIVE Among Australian smokers, to examine associations between cigarette brand switching, quitting activity and possible causal directions by lagging the relationships in different directions. METHODS Current smokers from nine waves (2002 to early 2012) of the ITC-4 Country Survey Australian dataset were surveyed. Measures were brand switching, both brand family and product type (roll-yo...

BACKGROUND Executive dysfunction is among the cognitive impairments that may persist after abstinence in alcohol-dependent persons. The type(s) and extent of executive dysfunction early in abstinence have not been well characterized, but they may have important implications for the evolution of behavioral treatment strategies. METHODS To determine which aspects of executive functioning were i...

Background and aims Extreme sports athletes are often labeled "adrenaline junkies" by the media, implying they are addicted to their sport. Research suggests during abstinence these athletes may experience withdrawal states characteristic of individuals with an addiction (Celsi, Rose, & Leigh, 1993; Franken, Zijlstra, & Muris, 2006; Willig, 2008). Despite this notion, no research has directly e...

This study aimed at establishing how vocal parameters change following a period of abstinence from cigarette smoking. The voices of 18 smokers were examined after one week and then one month of cigarette abstinence. Changes in several acoustic parameters (jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR)) were analysed. During abstinence, jitter and shimmer decreased significantly, whereas HNR in...

CONTEXT Little research has explored how teenagers think about abstinence and how it functions in their lives. These questions are particularly salient in light of widespread funding of abstinence-only programs in the United States. METHODS Data on attitudes and intentions related to abstinence and sex were collected from 365 adolescents aged 12-15 who participated in an HIV risk reduction pr...

PURPOSE Sexual abstinence has become the primary response to adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention. However, most abstinence programs are based on adult ideas of abstinence, and little is known about how adolescents themselves conceptualize sexual abstinence. METHODS In this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured exploratory interviews with 42 adole...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect of maternal illicit and prescription drug use on neonates in Washington State between 2000 and 2008. METHODS We used state-linked birth certificate and hospital discharge (mother and neonate) data to calculate prenatal drug exposure and neonatal abstinence syndrome rates, and compared state neonatal abstinence syndrome rates with national-level data from the N...

BACKGROUND When nicotine-dependent human subjects abstain from cigarette smoking, they exhibit deficits in working memory. An understanding of the neural substrates of such impairments may help to understand how nicotine affects cognition. Our aim, therefore, was to identify abnormalities in the circuitry that mediates working memory in nicotine-dependent subjects after they initiate abstinence...