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 In an innovative study, Yale researchers found a new way to help young adults understand the impacts of alcohol.

A multimodal digital program that incorporates health education, self-monitoring, and feedback and coaching was effective in helping young adults reduce their alcohol intake and improve their sleep health, according to a study published May 30 in JAMA Network Open. Lisa Fucito, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, is the study's first author.

The National Cancer Institute has awarded Lisa Fucito, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, a $3.4 million grant to test if varenicline, a medication FDA-approved for smoking cessation, is effective for helping people quit vaping.

Frances J. Griffith, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, and Lisa Fucito, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry are first and senior authors, respectively, of a paper in Nature Digital Medicine that describes a user experience analysis, including natural language processing, from a digital intervention for reducing alcohol risk and improving sleep health in young adults.

A new grant-funded study led by two Yale School of Medicine researchers will investigate deficient sleep as a mechanism of smoking relapse using a combined imaging study and clinical trial. Chiang-Shan Ray Li, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and of neuroscience, and Lisa Fucito, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, are the principal investigators.

Lisa Fucito, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Yale Tobacco Treatment Service, spoke to Psychology Today about her study of the drug varenicline, used for cessation of e-cigarette use.

“Our findings provide support for the safety and efficacy of varenicline for helping people quit e-cigarettes with minimal behavioral support, including among those with current mental health concerns like depression,” Lisa M. Fucito, PhD, director of the tobacco treatment service at Yale Cancer Center and associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, told Healio.

“We had a 15 percent difference in quit rates, with those in the medication group having a quit rate of 45 percent,” said lead researcher Lisa Fucito, director of the Tobacco Treatment Service at the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Conn.

The first U.S. trial of varenicline for e-cigarette cessation shows promising results and warrants larger-scale trials, the researchers say.