Tobacco use is dramatically increasing among youth. Growing attention has been addressed towards possible predictors of smoking in such a population. We evaluated a sample of Italian adolescents to verify whether adults and peers might influence their smoking status. Cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 schools of North Italy. Data were collected from 2001 to 2010 by means of a self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic data and individual/social possible predictors of smoking. 2,444 students (56.7% boys; 43.3% girls; mean = 14.32 ± 1.384 years) were analysed. 607 (24.8%) were current smokers; 1,837 (75.2%) were nonsmokers. The presence of smokers in the family, seeing teachers who smoke, the influence of friends, and the feeling of inferiority were predictors of youth smoking as well as unawareness of nicotine dangerous action to health. Running the logistic multivariate analysis with all the variables listed above in the same model, the strongest predictors of smoking were as follows: being unaware that pipe/cigar is harmful to health as cigarettes; not knowing that passive smoking is harmful to the growth of children; having seen teachers smoking. The present findings help to identify the variables that might favour smoking in youth. Such variables should become the target of prevention programs.

The findings for heart rate and BP are consistent with the stimulant properties of nicotine. The reduced capacity to maintain apnea under placebo might be due to carbon dioxide (CO2 ) hypersensitivity during periods of nicotine abstinence. The negative findings regarding fear reactivity might be due to BH being a relatively weak anxiogen. Future researchers are encouraged to employ CO2 -inhalation procedures to study the relationship between nicotine withdrawal and panic.

More research is needed into effectively addressing smoking in people with concurrent mental disorder. Data currently available need to be confirmed in randomized trials aimed at replicating the results and disentangling the effects of each therapeutic ingredient when a combination therapy is proposed. Studies on tolerability of treatments are warranted, as well as those aimed at identifying factors of vulnerability to adverse effects.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Depressive, anxious, withdrawal symptoms, and craving might affect differently the probability to maintain abstinence after quitting smoking.\ud OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess depressive, anxious, nicotine withdrawal symptoms, and craving in a sample of smokers attending a smoking cessation program over a period of 12 weeks.\ud METHODS: A naturalistic study was conducted in which 78 smokers were consecutively recruited for a 12 week evaluation program. Socio-demographic data and clinical information were collected, rating scales were used to assess anxious and depressive symptoms, nicotine dependence, withdrawal symptoms, and craving.\ud RESULTS: Of the 78 recruited smokers, 17 remained abstinent and 61 reverted to smoking during the period of 12 weeks. The probability of maintaining abstinence was increased when low depressive symptoms or low craving occurred during the cessation program.\ud CONCLUSION: The present results strengthen the importance of assessing depressive symptoms and craving over the follow-up of a physician-assisted smoking cessation program to detect abstaining smokers at risk to relapse

Introduction: Parental attitudes, taken in the three orthogonal dimensions of pleasure-displeasure, arousal-non arousal, dominance-submissive, contribute in creating the emotional climate in wich children's cognition and affectivity develop. Objectives: Parental attitudes can be measured via the Parental Attitudes Scales (PAD), a 46-item self-administered instrument counting three subscales. Aims: To explore the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the PAD. Methods: The PAD was administered to a sample of 163 Italian parents (77 males, 86 females) having children aged between three months and eight years and living in three different towns of Tuscany (Italy). Principal Component Analyses (PCA) were conducted and alpha coefficients were explored. The concurrent validity of the questionnaire was examinated by correlating the PAD scores with data from the Family Assessment Device (FAD) and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Results: Results from initial and PCA analyses suggested that several items of the questionnaire perform poorly and should be removed. Results supported a three-factor solution consisting of 36 items and accounting for 28,3% of the variance. Internal consistency for the short version of the PAD was high (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.81). The PAD scores showed statistically significant correlations with the PANAS and the FAD dimensions. Conclusions: Findings suggest that a reduced version of the scale could better represent the construct measured by the PAD. Overall, the short versionof the questionnaire proved to be a valid and reliable measure of parental attitudes.