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=== 2023: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37061812/ Nicotine - friend or foe? The complex interplay between its role in dependence, harm reduction and risk communication.] === | === 2023: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37061812/ Nicotine - friend or foe? The complex interplay between its role in dependence, harm reduction and risk communication.] === | ||
* So, how should we communicate the risks of nicotine? The quixotic attitude towards nicotine in our field has unintended consequences elsewhere. O’Brien et al.’s study of adolescents in the PATH study confirms findings in adults, including medical professionals, that nicotine is believed to cause smoking-related harms beyond addiction, such as cancer. Encouragingly, those having higher risk perceptions were less likely to start using nicotine-containing products a year later. Concerningly, even among adolescent smokers nearly half believed that nicotine in NRT was harmful, which may reduce the use of effective medication to help them stop smoking. | * So, how should we communicate the risks of nicotine? The quixotic attitude towards nicotine in our field has unintended consequences elsewhere. O’Brien et al.’s study of adolescents in the PATH study confirms findings in adults, including medical professionals, that nicotine is believed to cause smoking-related harms beyond addiction, such as cancer. Encouragingly, those having higher risk perceptions were less likely to start using nicotine-containing products a year later. Concerningly, even among adolescent smokers nearly half believed that nicotine in NRT was harmful, which may reduce the use of effective medication to help them stop smoking. | ||
* Clearly, no one wants to see a generation of nicotine-dependent youth, and more effective measures to limit access to nicotine, especially combustible nicotine, are needed. But when it comes to communicating research to the wider public, we must avoid conflating the relatively limited harm of nicotine dependence with its effects on maintaining tobacco addiction, and therefore well-established tobacco-related harm, not least because of the impact this has on risk perceptions of those most in need of nicotine-based treatment: Tobacco users. | * Clearly, no one wants to see a generation of nicotine-dependent youth, and more effective measures to limit access to nicotine, especially combustible nicotine, are needed. But when it comes to communicating research to the wider public, we must avoid conflating the relatively limited harm of nicotine dependence with its effects on maintaining tobacco addiction, and therefore well-established tobacco-related harm, not least because of the impact this has on risk perceptions of those most in need of nicotine-based treatment: Tobacco users. | ||
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