Are Smoking Cessation Treatments Associated with Suicidality Risk? An Overview.

Risk of suicidality during smoking cessation treatment is an important, but often overlooked, aspect of nicotine addiction research and treatment. We explore the relationship between smoking cessation interventions and suicidality and explore common treatments, their associated risks, and effectiveness in promoting smoking reduction and abstinence. Although active smokers have been reported to have twofold to threefold increased risk of suicidality when compared to nonsmokers,1-4 research regarding the safest way to stop smoking does not always provide clear guidelines for practitioners wishing to advise their patients regarding smoking cessation strategies. In this article, we review pharmacological and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) options that are available for people seeking to quit smoking, focusing on the relationship between the ability of these therapies to reduce smoking behavior and promote abstinence and suicidality risks as assessed by reported suicidality on validated measures, reports of suicidal ideation, behaviors, actual attempts, or completed suicides. Pharmacotherapies such as varenicline, bupropion, and nicotine replacement, and CBTs, including contextual CBT interventions, have been found to help reduce smoking rates and promote and maintain abstinence. Suicidality risks, while present when trying to quit smoking, do not appear to demonstrate a consistent or significant rise associated with use of any particular smoking cessation pharmacotherapy or CBT/contextual CBT intervention reviewed.

Visual attraction in Drosophila larvae develops during a critical period and is modulated by crowding conditions.

The development of social behavior is poorly understood. Many animals adjust their behavior to environmental conditions based on a social context. Despite having relatively simple visual systems, Drosophila larvae are capable of identifying and are attracted to the movements of other larvae. Here, we show that Drosophila larval visual recognition is encoded by the movements of nearby larvae, experienced during a specific developmental critical period. Exposure to moving larvae, only during a specific period, is sufficient for later visual recognition of movement. Larvae exposed to wild-type body movements, during the critical period, are not attracted to the movements of tubby mutants, which have altered morphology. However, exposure to tubby, during the critical period, results in tubby recognition at the expense of wild-type recognition indicating that this is true learning. Visual recognition is not learned in excessively crowded conditions, and this is emulated by exposure, during the critical period, to food previously used by crowded larvae. We propose that Drosophila larvae have a distinct critical period, during which they assess both social and resource conditions, and that this irreversibly determines later visually guided social behavior. This model provides a platform towards understanding the regulation and development of social behavior.