Receiving text messages about binge drinking after visiting the emergency room can help young adults reduce their hazardous alcohol consumption by more than 50 percent, a new study suggests.

The study included 765 young adults seen in the emergency room, who had a history of hazardous drinking. The study participants were divided into thirds. One third received text messages for 12 weeks that prompted them to respond to questions about their drinking. They received texts in return that offered feedback on their answers, News-Medical.net reports. Another third received text messages asking about their drinking, but received no feedback. The remaining third received no text messages.

Participants who received both text message questions about their drinking and feedback said they decreased their binge drinking by 51 percent, and the number of drinks per day by 31 percent. Those who received only text messages or no text messages increased the number of days they engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks in one sitting for men and four or more drinks for women.

The study is published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Cigarette warning labels can influence a smoker to try to quit even when the smoker is trying to avoid seeing the labels, according to a survey of thousands of adult smokers in four countries published by the American Psychological Association.

Small, text-only warning labels like those on cigarette packs in the United States prompt people to think about health risks of smoking, and people who notice the warnings regularly are more likely to try to quit, the research found. Larger, more graphic warning labels like those in other countries, such as Australia  were better at getting people's attention and motivating them to attempt quitting, according to the study in the APA journal Health Psychology. 

Researchers conducted telephone surveys of over 5,000 smokers in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2009, and then followed up with them one year later. Smokers answered a series of questions, including how many cigarettes they smoked a day and how often they noticed warning labels on cigarette packages. Researchers also asked them if warning labels made them think about smoking's health risks, if the labels made them think about quitting and if they actively tried to avoid looking at the warnings. The researchers then asked if they were considering quitting and, at the one-year follow-up, if they had attempted to quit. They collected other demographic information, such as gender, age and education level. 

Because noticing the warnings may be the first step toward getting smokers to think about and attempt to quit, the authors suggested policymakers require that warnings be larger and more graphic on cigarette packages and that they are supplemented with mass media campaigns with similar health warnings.
 

The Partnership at Drugfree.Org is now the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. They are communicating more directly why they exist, and that's to reduce teen substance abuse and support families impacted by addiction. Through their revamped website, their toll-free telephone helpline (1-855-DRUGFREE)and all of their communications, the Partnership is committed to being the place where families find answers.
  

Take some time to browse the new drugfree.org. There, you'll find the same informative, science-based resources you've come to rely upon as well as many new features - including a brand new interactive online community where you can post memorials, chat with experts, talk to others on forums and more.