WASHINGTON, DC—DoD health officials will increase the number of servicemembers and their families it helps quit smoking.

Opinion poll:
Should the DoD set a date for a tobacco-free military? Please read the article about DoD expanding smoking cessation efforts and participate in the online poll.

WASHINGTON, DC—While the overall negative health effects of smoking have been common knowledge for many years, a newly-released Surgeon General’s report goes into unprecedented detail on how tobacco causes disease at a biological and behavioral level.

WASHINGTON, DC—No one has ever said that quitting smoking was easy. For servicemembers and veterans, who may already be under considerable stress, giving up something they perceive as relieving their stress can be especially tough.

WASHINGTON, DC—Smoking cessation treatment that is made part of mental healthcare for veterans with PTSD improves quit rates, according to a VA study published in the December 8 Journal of the American Medical Association.

BETHESDA, MD—NIH is examining the possibility of creating a single institute for substance use, abuse, and addiction research.

Darvon and Darvocet Removed from US Market

Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc, which makes Darvon® and Darvocet®, the brand version of the prescription pain medication propoxyphene, has agreed to withdraw the medication from the US market at FDA’s request.

WASHINGTON, DC—Progress has been made in increasing the number of Americans tested for HIV.

BETHESDA, MD—“Combat injury is not an event. It’s a process.” Those words, spoken by Stephen Cozza, MD, associate director of the USUHS Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, could have been taken as the central theme of DCoE’s Trauma Spectrum Conference held last month on the campus of NIH. The conference has focused attention for the last three years on the effects of combat trauma not only on the soldier, but also on their spouses, children, friends, and society as a whole.

Thomas Kosten has been fascinated by the mechanisms of addiction since his first year as a medical student. While working through the MD/PhD program at Cornell Medical School, Kosten became interested in the field of opioid dependence, working in the methadone program.

WASHINGTON, DC—A new Army medicine initiative is aiming to give military families better access to healthcare. Seventeen new off-base Army primary care clinics are being built off of the military installation, allowing those families of soldiers who had challenges in getting access to care at busy installations to be able to get it off post.