About the Blog Author-John R. Hughes, MD
John R. Hughes, MD is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Family Practice at the University of Vermont. Dr. Hughes is board certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. His major focus has been clinical research on tobacco use. Dr. Hughes received the Ove Ferno Award for research in nicotine dependence and the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Health. He is a co-founder and past president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence. Dr. Hughes has been Chair of the Vermont Tobacco Evaluation and Review Board which oversees VT’s multi-million dollar tobacco control programs. He has over 400 publications on nicotine and other drug dependencies and is one of the world’s most cited tobacco scientist. Dr. Hughes has been a consultant on tobacco policy to the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the White House. His current research is on how tobacco users and marijuana users stop or reduce use on their own, novel methods to prompt quit attempts by such users, whether smoking cessation reduces reward sensitivity and whether stopping e-cigarettes causes withdrawal. Dr Hughes has received fees from companies who develop smoking cessation devices, medications and services, from governmental and academic institutions, and from public and private organizations that promote tobacco control.
News
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Psychiatric co‐morbidity with smoking is increasing over time
Smokers with a history of a psychiatric disorder are less likely to stop smoking than those without this history. In addition, whenever a society stigmatizes a behavior and makes it more deviant, then those who, nevertheless, take up or continue the behavior are more likely to have psychiatric comorbidity. As a result of these two phenomena, the association of smoking and psychiatric disorders should be increasing over time. Four articles have tested this notion. Two articles..... -
Changing Multiple Behaviors Simultaneously vs Sequentially
In two prior blogs I described the theory and evidence that self‐control is like a muscle in that one has a limited amount of self‐control and using that up on one task can make it harder to be successful at another self‐control task (Self‐control as a Finite Resource 5/20/14). But on the other hand training one’s self in unrelated self‐control tasks can improve self‐control on a later task (Building the Self‐Control Muscle, 2/26/16).... -
Marijuana Intoxication
Recently there has been an increase in emergency room visits for marijuana intoxication, perhaps due to the stronger potency of marijuana recently....