News by Subject Social & Behavior

Not a good mix: A researcher from the University of Houston has found that adults who combine prescription opioids for severe pain and cannabis report elevated anxiety and depression symptoms, with no increased pain reduction.

This study (called a systematic review and meta-analysis) combined the results of 21 studies with about 128,000 participants to quantify the association between electronic cigarette use and marijuana use among adolescents and young adults.

Because smokers are less likely to develop ulcerative colitis (UC), a type of inflammatory bowel disease, patients with UC may be tempted to start smoking to lessen their symptoms.

One of the largest longitudinal studies to date examined evening consumption of alcohol, caffeine and nicotine among an African-American cohort and objectively measured sleep outcomes in their natural environments instead of laboratory or observatory settings. The study involved 785 participants and totaled 5,164 days of concurrent actigraphy and daily sleep diaries that recorded how much alcohol, caffeine or nicotine they consumed within four hours of bedtime. Results may be good news for coffee lovers, bad news for smokers.

County- and municipality-level bans on tobacco sales to individuals under age 21 yield substantive reductions in smoking among 18- to 20-year-olds, according to a new study from the Yale School of Public Health.

The tobacco industry has bumped up the prices for its products beyond that required by tax changes, even when tax rises were large and unexpected, reveal the findings of research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

A new study published today by the scientific journal Addiction found that raising the legal age of sale of cigarettes from 18 to 21 in the US was associated with a 39% reduction in the odds of regular smoking in 18- to 20-year-olds who had experimented with cigarettes. The reduction was even greater (50%) in those who had close friends who smoked when they were 16.

More than half of the top-grossing movies in Ontario in the past 16 years featured smoking, according to University of Toronto researchers with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit -- and most of these films were rated as acceptable for youth.

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that cigarette smoking boosts the risk of peripheral artery disease, and this elevated risk can persist up to 30 years after smoking cessation.