addictions

A journalistic investigation by The Investigative Desk (Netherlands) and The BMJ (UK) concludes that tobacco industry-funded studies continue to appear in the most cited medical journals. The team of journalists found hundreds of links in the PubMed database between the medical and pharmaceutical subsidiaries of the big tobacco companies - Philip Morris International, Altria, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and Japan Tobacco International - and published medical research. In addition, the research revealed that of 40 journals - the 10 most cited in general medicine and another 30 in areas affected by smoking - only eight had policies prohibiting studies funded in whole or in part by the tobacco industry. 

E-cigarettes, vapes, pods, mods... The popularity of these devices continues to grow, especially among young people. According to a Spanish survey, more than half of the adolescents aged 14 to 18 have used them at some point. Vaping control varies from country to country: in Spain, vaping products have been regulated since 2017 and the new anti-smoking plan aims to equate their legislation to that of tobacco, while the United States imposes fewer restrictions. In this brief guide, we explain what is known and not known on controversial issues such as the safety of electronic cigarettes, their risks or whether they are useful to quit tobacco.

This Friday, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System approved the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking (PIT). The document, which incorporates 147 proposals from the autonomous communities, has not achieved consensus among all of them.
 

In pregnant women, neither regular use of electronic cigarettes nor nicotine replacement therapy is associated with unfavorable effects, according to a trial involving 1,140 pregnant smokers in England and Scotland. The authors analyzed the association between nicotine consumption by the two routes - vaping and nicotine patches - with parameters including infant birth weight, miscarriages, premature births and respiratory symptoms in the mother. The research is published in the scientific journal Addiction.

Brain lesions that cause spontaneous remission of tobacco addiction in humans affect a brain circuit common to different addictive behaviours, concludes a study published in Nature Medicine. Understanding this brain network opens the way to new therapies against addiction.