Adverse effects of a social contract smoking prevention program among children in Québec, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a smoke-free class competition in elementary schools in Québec, Canada before widespread dissemination of the program across the province. METHODS: In a quasiexperimental study design, 843 students in 27 schools exposed to "Mission TNT.06" were compared to 1213 students in 57 matched comparison schools. Baseline data were collected in grade 6 prior to implementation of the program. Follow-up data were collected in grade 7 after students had transitioned to secondary school. RESULTS: The program improved knowledge about the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, but had no impact on knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking, attitudes about the acceptability of cigarettes, beliefs about the tobacco industry, or self-efficacy to resist peer pressure to smoke. After exposure to the program, intervention students were more likely to misreport their smoking status and to report unfavourable attitudes about classmates who smoke. CONCLUSION: Mission TNT.06 may encourage young smokers to misreport their smoking status and to marginalise classmates who smoke. These findings prompted recommendations to conduct more in-depth evaluation of the smoke-free class competition before widespread dissemination of the program across the province.

Primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma of liver.

Primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) of liver is a very rare malignancy. Here, we report the case of a 65-year-old man who presented with constipation and right groin pain of 2 months' duration. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen incidentally detected multiple hypodense nodules in both lobes of the liver. Diagnosis of primary NHL of liver was made using ultrasound-guided biopsy. Extensive investigations--which included bone marrow biopsy; fluorescence in situ hybridization; flow cytometry; CT scan of chest, abdomen, and pelvis; and whole-body positron-emission tomography--showed no involvement of bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen, or any other organ. The patient is currently being treated with a CHOP-R (cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine-prednisolone/rituximab) regimen. The case has many unique features, including normal liver function tests, especially that for lactate dehydrogenase; no type B symptoms; and negative serology for viruses. The case demonstrates that primary hepatic lymphoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of space-occupying liver lesions in presence of normal levels of alpha-fetoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen. The literature is extensively reviewed.

Abstinence and well-being among members of Alcoholics Anonymous: personal experience and social perceptions.

The authors examined the subjective experience of well-being (WB) among abstinent Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members and social perceptions of an abstinent alcoholic's WB among 3 nonalcoholic French-Canadian samples: male police officers, Catholic nuns, and university women. The short-term abstinent AA members, along with the university women, reported the lowest self-ratings of WB, whereas the Catholic nuns reported the highest. However, among the abstinent AA members, the level of WB was positively related to the length of abstention. The 3 nonalcoholic groups evaluated an abstinent AA member more positively than a nonabstinent alcoholic. These evaluations of an abstinent AA member converged with the AA members' self-evaluations on the measure of WB.