Elisardo Becona

University of Santiago de Compostela | USC · Departamento de Psicología Clínica y Psicobiología, Unidad de Tabaquismo y Trastornos Adictivos

https://theconversation.com/como-una-organizacion-de-familias-pudo-cambiar-la-legislacion-sobre-las-casas-de-apuestas-234539

Family involvement has proven to be a protective factor in childhood and adolescence, acting as a preventive barrier against risky behaviours, such as substance abuse and addiction, among minors and youth. Family- and community-based intervention strategies for environmental prevention have been deemed effective; however, empirical data is scarce....

Background Behavioral activation (BA) is an effective intervention for both depression and substance use disorders. Combining BA with a standard smoking cessation intervention may improve quit rates by addressing depressive symptoms, a key barrier to quitting. This study preliminarily evaluated the acceptability and efficacy of the BA-based Actify!...

This study analyses changes in depressive symptomatology as a function of smoking status over time after a cognitive-behavioural intervention for smoking cessation among smokers with a history of depressive episode. The sample comprised 215 smokers with antecedents of depressive episode (Mage=45.03; 64.7% female). Depressive symptoms were assessed...

Introduction This study assessed the efficacy of the SinHumo App combined with a cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment on 12-month follow-up abstinence, compared with the same smoking cessation treatment and a control App. Aims and Methods A sample of 288 treatment-seeking people who smoke were randomized: SinHumo App plus smoking cessa...

Despite the increasing number of mobile-based interventions to quit smoking over the last years, few studies have investigated the efficacy of smoking cessation interventions blended with smartphone Apps. The present pilot study aims to examine the preliminary effectiveness and acceptability of a cognitive-behavioral treatment combined with a smart...

Guía de buenas prácticas y calidad en la prevención de las drogodependencias y de las adicciones

Assessment of tobacco dependence is especially relevant in clinical settings, but different measures are used. The present study examines the predictive value of five tobacco dependence measures on abstinence at 6- and 12-month follow-ups in a sample of treatment-seeking smokers who had received a cognitive-behavioral intervention to quit smoking....

Expone la problemática del bullying y ciberbullying, para conocerla y poder abordarla por parte de profesores, padres y alumnos.

La prevención del consumo de drogas ha cobrado una gran relevancia, cara a prevenir las consecuencias negativas que acarrea, tanto en jóvenes y adolescentes como en adultos. Lo mismo ocurre con las adicciones comportamentales (juego patológico, videojuegos). Uno de los tipos de prevención que está cobrando gran relevancia es la denominada prevenció...

Boredom is one of the main reported motives for smoking. However, scarce research has examined the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence achievement in treatment-seeking smokers. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of anxiety symptoms in the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence at the...

Background: Individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) often have co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs), which substantially impoverish the course of illness. Despite the importance of this dual diagnosis, the evidence of the efficacy and safety of adjuvant treatments is mostly unknown. Objective: To perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the eff...

Estudia la evolución de la terapia cognitiva conductual en el tratamiento de las adicciones en España desde su aparición hasta hoy.

Despite the fact that perceived stress is related to abstinence smoking outcomes, no studies have investigated the mediational effect of specific tobacco-related variables on this relationship. This study aimed to explore the indirect effect of perceived stress on abstinence at the end of treatment through smoking urges. The sample comprised 260 tr...

Several factors, including sexual knowledge and attitudes, influence sexual behaviours among college students. Scientific research suggests that positive information and attitudes regarding condom use and sexually transmitted infections (STI) have a strong association with protective behaviours. This study aimed to analyze knowledge and attitudes a...

Numerous studies have shown the efficacy of smoking cessation interventions. However, some challenges, such as relapse rates, remain. The availability of information technologies (ICTs) offers promising opportunities to address such challenges. The aim of this paper is to describe the protocol followed to assess the efficacy of a face-to-face cogni...

Throughout the years, university students showed a high prevalence of risky sexual behaviors. The beginning of sexual activity at an early age, having multiple sexual partners, alcohol consumption before having sexual relations and the inconsistent use of the condom are some of the most common characteristics and examples of risky sexual behaviors...

Background: This study explores the shared and specific associations of brooding rumination and anxiety sensitivity to depression and anxiety symptomatology in a sample of treatment-seeking smokers. Methods: The sample was composed of 275 treatment-seeking adult smokers. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relat...

Smoking cessation interventions are effective, but they are not easily accessible for all treatment-seeking smokers. Mobile health (mHealth) apps have been used in recent years to overcome some of these limitations. Smoking cessation apps can be used in combination with a face-to-face intervention (FFSC-Apps), or alone as general apps (GSC-Apps). T...

Cannabis is the most frequently consumed illicit drug among young people. The preventive program “Sé tú mismo” (Be Yourself) (STM) was developed in order to reduce cannabis use in the adolescent population. The program consists of 10 sessions with social influence and life skills components, and is applied with an interactive methodology. The purpo...

Introduction The reduction of the patterns of risky drinking remains a major public health problem and challenge in academic contexts, especially when scientific investigations reveal a high incidence of risky drinking among university students. The main aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of drinking behaviours of university students an...

BACKGROUND Behavioural interventions are effective for smoking cessation. However, they are not easily accessible for all treatment-seeking smokers. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and, specifically, mobile health (mHealth) apps, have been used in recent years to overcome these limitations. Smoking cessation apps can be used combined...

Co-occurrence of depression and a substance use disorder (SUD) in patients who present dual diagnoses has been long recognized as an important consideration in clinical practice. This review synthesizes the evidence of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for comorbid depressive disorders and SUDs while providing clinical recommendations...

Although correct diagnosis and management of patients with schizophrenia and a comorbid substance use disorder (SUD) would determine a decrease in morbidity and mortality in these patients, development of efficient therapeutic strategies is still pending. We present recommendations on the pharmacological and psychological management of these patien...

Despite advances in smoking cessation treatments, smoking relapse remains common. Experiencing positive or negative affect and cigarette dependence are the most common causes of relapse; however, little is known about the characteristics that increase the risk of relapse from these causes among current treatment-seeking smokers. Thus, this study ai...

Introduction Treatment completion is associated with abstinence outcomes in smoking cessation interventions. Previous research has stated that anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with smoking-related variables and smoking-cessation outcomes. To date, research has not examined the interaction between AS and treatment completion on smoking-cessati...

Introducción: Durante los últimos sesenta años se ha construido evidencia sobre los efectos adversos relacionados con el consumo crónico de cannabis. Los problemas de memoria y concentración, el riesgo de esquizofrenia en sujetos predispuestos y el síndrome amotivacional han sido referenciados. Con los primeros al parecer no hay muchas dudas, pero...

University students, regardless of the country, have a very high prevalence of physical inactivity and health habits acquired during this period tend to remain throughout life, including those related to physical exercise. The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between knowledge about the recommendations on the practice of physic...

The problem of consumption of illicit psychoactive substances by students in higher education is not new, since it is in this age group that the highest prevalence of consumption of these substances continues to occur. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of illicit drug use among university students and to analyze the predictive factors and...

Libro en el que a partir de a experiencia del confinamiento por el Covid-19 se van desgranando los procesos psicológicos que llevan al ser humano a afrontar las situaciones difíciles en su vida.

Despite the advances in understanding the relationship between smoking and depressive symptomatology, scarce research has investigated cognitive variables underlying in such relation. The main aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of two rumination subtypes (brooding and reflection) in the link between depressive symptoms and both ci...

Aims To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of self-medication in college students and to analyse the predicting factors for the engagement in that behaviour. Design This is a cross-sectional study involving students ( n = 840) from a Portuguese university, selected through stratified and proportional sampling. Data were collected usin...

El consumo de drogas se ha convertido en un importante problema en las sociedades desarrolladas. El consumo de cocaína, cannabis y heorína provoca múltiples problemas a sus consumidores. A lo largo de las páginas de este manual se presentan las características más importantes de estas drogas, como su prevalencia, particularidades y tipos de abordaj...

Si bien es común ver en la práctica clínica deficiencias en la motivación en usuarios de marihuana, no ha sido firmemente establecida la existencia de un posible síndrome amotivacional asociado con el consumo de esta droga, entre otras razones por la concurrencia de factores como la depresión que pueden llevar a generalizar inadecuadamente la situa...

Relapse remains a frequent and complex phenomenon that is not yet well understood. An under-researched area of study that may provide relevant information concerns the assessment of specific post-treatment variables, rather than the composite measures commonly used to predict smoking relapse. The current study sought to examine the effects of post-...

Lack of motivation for the treatment of drug addiction is associated with dropout and relapses. Further, personality disorders (PD) have traditionally been linked to low motivation and therapeutic failure. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the structure of the Motivation for Treatment Questionnaire (MTQ–8), as well as to determine differences...

En la vida hay ocasiones en las que un acontecimiento inesperado cambia nuestra vida. Aparece de repente, sin avisar, sin que nosotros estemos preparados para el mismo. Esto es lo que ha ocurrido con la aparición y desarrollo de la pandemia del Covid-19. Este coronavirus que apareció en China, a finales de 2019, se ha extendido rápidamente por todo...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Objectives To assess the prevalence of active smoking and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among college students in the north of Portugal, and analyze the relationship between knowledge about tobacco use and attitudes toward smoking. Materials and methods This a cross-sectional study with a representative sample of college students (n=840) in one...

Health Psychology Report Background The mental health of university students has been the subject of great attention from scientific investigations, not only to provide contextualised information, but additionally since high levels of well-being predicted a quality education. This study aims to evaluate the perception of well-being and health of...

Background: The current study sought to further examine the relation between avoidance, environmental reward, depressive symptoms and cigarette dependence. Method: The sample included 275 adult treatment-seeking daily smokers (M age = 45.36, SD = 10.96; 61.5% female). To examine the relationships between the study variables, correlation and seri...

Cognitive biases or distortions related to gambling, present in all people, are considered a relevant factor in the development of gambling-related problems. Objective: to establish whether the presence of these biases or cognitive distortions, in gamblers and non-gamblers, is related to the presence of gambling problems. Method: 3000 people ag...

Fumar es uno de los factores de riesgo más importantes para la salud y calidad de vida de las personas, especialmente cuando está presente una enfermedad respiratoria y/o cardiovascular. Presentamos la evaluación e intervención psicológica para dejar de fumar de un varón de 41 años de edad con enfermedad física grave y con un consumo diario de 20 c...

Introduction: Depressive symptoms are related to smoking cessation outcomes. We examined the effects of behavioral activation (BA), as part of a cognitive behavioral intervention to quit smoking, in terms of abstinence rates according to depressive symptom level. We also analyzed whether BA could differentially benefit participants with higher ver...

Among the smoking motives, boredom relief is one of the most reported by smokers. The tendency to experience boredom has been proposed as a personality trait related to addictive behaviors and other variables such as depression or the perception of environmental reward. Differences in boredom susceptibility have also been observed among men and wom...

Loneliness is a subjective and emotionally unpleasant experience of perceiving insufficient social relationships. Previous research has revealed that loneliness constitutes a psychosocial risk factor for depression, and is also related to unhealthy behaviors such as smoking. This study aims to examine the relation between loneliness, depression, an...

Introduction Behavioral Activation is a behavioral-based treatment that has been proposed as suitable for smoking cessation, as it simultaneously addresses reinforcement-related variables and also mood management. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of a cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment with components of behavioral act...

Bioethics committee study protocol Spanish. (PDF)

Bioethics committee study protocol English translation. (PDF)

Fumar es uno de los factores de riesgo más importantes para la calidad de vida, así como para la salud física y psicológica de las personas. La evidencia de la que disponemos muestra que el consumo de tabaco está estrechamente relacionado con la depresión. En el presente artículo presentamos la evaluación e intervención psicológica para dejar de fu...

Diversos estudios señalan la relevancia de la variable etnicidad en relación a la evolución y patrones de consumo de drogas (p.e. Oh et al., 2017), como en relación a factores de riesgo o protección diferenciales (Fisher et al., 2017; Terry-McElrath et al., 2017). Algunos estudios (p.e. Meneses et al., 2003) señalan que la etnicidad es un elemento...

There is a broad consensus that the age of onset is especially relevant, as an early initiation, specifically before the age of 15, is an important risk factor for the subsequent use of drugs (Gilvery, 2000; Kandel, 2002; Stone, Becker, Huber & Catalano, 2012). In Spain, based on the data provided by the ESTUDES survey 2016 (PNSD, 2018), alcohol (7...

Introduction: Substance use and depression co-occurrence is a frequent phenomenon and an important public health concern. Given the clinical implications and the high prevalence of both disorders, effective interventions are needed. Methods: The aim of this study is to review Behavioural Activation (BA) intervention effects to improve substance...

Background: There is relevant scientific evidence supporting the need to invest in preventing the use of psychoactive substances in higher education, particularly amongst first-year university students.Goals: The purpose of this research was to assess the effectiveness of an original prevention program, the Risks & Challenges, in reducing psychoact...

Versión en español del artículo publicado en: Becoña, E. (2018). Brain disease or biopsychosocial model in addictions? Remembering the Vietnam Veteran Study. Psicothema, 2018, 30(3), 270-275. Resumen En los últimos años se escucha con insistencia que las adicciones son una enfermedad cerebral, dejando a un lado la clásica explicación biopsicosocial...

Background: In recent years, we have repeatedly been told that addictions are a brain disease, leaving aside their classic biopsychosocial explanation. Objective: To describe both models and discusses the weakness and reductionism of the brain disease model following the consumption of heroin by North American soldiers in the Vietnam war in the 197...

In this chapter, we analyse the legislation that affects gambling in Spain in relation to the most important games and with regard to both to the national legislation for the entire country and the specific legislation of its different regions. Spain has a broad normative regulation that is oriented essentially to tax collection. We will also prese...

Actualmente hay un enorme interés por las adicciones comportamentales, tanto en las que hay consenso (juego patológico, adicción a los videojuegos), como en las que hay dudas de su existencia (ej., Internet, teléfono móvil, hipersexualidad, amor romántico, compra compulsiva, ejercicio físico, bronceado, comida, trabajo, etc.). Exponemos los datos e...

Introduction The associations between depression and cigarette dependence had been established through a large amount of studies. Nevertheless, mechanisms underlying such association are not clearly recognized. The main aim of this study was to explore whether the perception of environmental reinforcement mediates the effect of cigarette dependence...

Introduction We report the evaluation and psychological intervention to quit smoking of a 41-year-old male with depression and Myosin Storage Myopathy (MSM) caused by a genetic mutation in MYH7. MSM is a congenital skeletal muscle disorder which the main manifestation is muscle weakness especially in limb-girdle or scapuloperoneal muscles. The MSN...

Introduction The drugs consumption at early age is an important risk factor for its later use and progression to more serious forms. The objective of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of the program "Be yourself" (STM), to reduce the consumption of tobacco in adolescents. The sample consists of 893 participants (48.4% men, 51.6% women), mea...

Background: Depressive symptoms and craving are related to smoking maintenance; however, little is known about the association between trajectories of depressive symptoms and smoking craving after quitting. Objectives: We examined if depressive symptom change relates to change in craving following smoking cessation treatment. Methods: Particip...

Background: Previous studies have shown that smoking is associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) impairment. In order to evaluate HRQoL in a sample of Spanish relapsers, a cross-sectional study was conducted. Method: The sample was made up of 775 smokers who had relapsed after a period of abstinence. HRQoL was evaluated using the E...

We conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis (ID: CRD42016051017) of smoking cessation interventions for patients with current depression. We examined the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatments in improving abstinence rates and depressive symptoms. The following electronic databases were used for potentially eligible studies...

Data underlying the meta-analysis. (XLSX)

Objectives: The present study sought to address whether there is sex effect in the interactive effect between depressive symptoms and hazardous drinking in the prediction of smoking craving after cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment among those with at least mild depression. Methods: Participants (n = 114, mean age 42.0, SD = 9.73, 6...

Psychopathology and psychological distress have been shown to be related to poor smoking cessation outcomes and abstinence maintenance. Thus, it is important to identify individuals with high levels of psychopathology before undergoing smoking cessation treatment in order to increase their likelihood of success. Objective: The primary aim of the pr...

The exposure of children to secondhand smoke is a worldwide reality with serious negative consequences on children's health. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of the intervention program Domicílios 100% livres de fumo, in the prevention of children's secondhand tobacco smoke exposure. The study included an experimental group of 4...

Introduction: Relapse is a common factor within the behavior change process. However, there is scarce and limited knowledge of smoking relapse situations in population-based samples. The aim of this study was to identify smoking relapse situations among a sample of Spanish relapsers from the general population. Methods: A sample of 775 relapsers...

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality and has been linked with diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The case of a 50-year-old woman with breast cancer, who suffered a stroke the previous month and is in treatment for depression and wants to quit smoking, is analyzed. She smoked 10 cigarettes a day and h...

Background Smoking is an important risk factor for mental health-related problems. Numerous studies have supported a bi-directional association between cigarette smoking and depression. Despite the advances in understanding the comorbidity between both problems, the most effective psychological treatment that simultaneously targets smoking and depr...