University of Wisconsin–Madison

Month: September 2016

Smoking and Psychopathology: Mechanisms and Treatments

Dr. Jessica Cook, presentation, Smoking and Psychopathology: Mechanisms and Treatments. For both those with PTSD and those in the control group, smoking a cigarette with or without nicotine reduced the negative emotional response to the stressor. Also, consistent findings across diagnostic groups suggest that smoking motivational processes, at least with regard to emotional modulation, may be …

Could an Enzyme Suggest New Quit-Smoking Treatments?

Researchers have identified an enzyme associated with how addicted a smoker is to nicotine, and it could suggest new paths to designing medications to help smokers quit. UW-CTRI Director of Research Dr. Tim Baker and researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered for the first time that nicotine dependence is associated in part with …

UW-CTRI’s Dr. Jess Cook Earns Tenure

UW-CTRI researcher Dr. Jess Cook has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. The appointment will be effective July 1. Cook first joined UW-CTRI in 2008 as an assistant professor. She is also a clinical psychologist at the William S. Middleton Memorial VA, where she treats veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. “When I joined UW-CTRI, …

Smokers With a History of Psychiatric Disorders Show Poorer Response to Counseling

Intensive counseling with smokers that have psychiatric histories may not lead to higher abstinence rates, according to a new paper by UW-CTRI researchers. Whereas the original outcome paper, published in Addiction, supports the combined use of pre-quit nicotine gum and intensive in-person counseling in all smokers, the current paper sheds light on how multiple intervention …

UW-CTRI Study: No Clear Evidence Vaping Leads to Less Smoking or Lower CO Levels

Back in 2013, former UW-CTRI Clinic Manager Sophie Rodrigues-Pereira interviewed participant Jeffrey Grise as part of the Dual Use Study. Vaping electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) didn’t affect the level of smoking or carbon monoxide levels in study participants, according to findings to be published by UW-CTRI researchers in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. UW-CTRI, led by …

Lois Smith Stays Active, Quits Smoking

Lois Smith (above center, with her quit coaches), a former smoker from Rio, quit smoking years ago with the help of the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line. “I thought the Quit Line was really beneficial,” she says. “The counselors really helped me. They have a lot of great things to tell you about quitting.” For Lois, …

UW Rheumatology Collaborates with UW-CTRI to Help Patients Quit Smoking

UW-CTRI Associate Director of Research Dr. Megan Piper is part of a collaborative research team that received a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award from the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. This is part of an ongoing research effort, led by Dr. Christie Bartels, to identify interventions to help patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic …

Study: Want More Friends? Quit Smoking

A common fear of many smokers who want to quit is that they will lose many people in their social network―family, friends or co-workers―when they quit smoking. In fact, the opposite is true, according to a new study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Those who quit smoking tended to increase their number of meaningful friendships …

Researchers Identify Differences in Referral Rates to Quit-Smoking Treatment Among Women Veterans

New research shows that women Veterans do poorly with tobacco cessation clinics, according to a paper published in Military Medicine. While 54 percent of women Veterans enrolled in a tobacco-cessation clinic made a quit attempt, only 8 percent were successful to 6 months. Only 24 percent of women Veteran smokers were referred to the tobacco cessation clinic …