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Mass media interventions involve communication through television, radio, newspapers, billboards, posters, leaflets or booklets, with the intention of encouraging smokers to stop, and of maintaining abstinence in non-smokers. It is likely that they contribute to a reduction in smoking when used as part of a complex set of interventions, but it is difficult ...

When people stop smoking they experience cravings to smoke and unpleasant mood changes. Nicotine receptor partial agonists aim to reduce withdrawal symptoms and smoking satisfaction. Two recent trials of cytisine (937 people) confirm that it can be an effective and affordable treatment for smoking cessation. Quit rates were low, however, at around 9% ...

Over 200 viruses cause influenza and influenza-like illness which produce the same symptoms (fever, headache, aches and pains, cough and runny noses). Without laboratory tests, doctors cannot tell the two illnesses apart. Both last for days and rarely lead to death or serious illness. At best, vaccines might be effective against only influenza A and ...

The common cold is the most common and widespread illness known to humans. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for example, aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen, have analgesic (pain reducing), antipyretic (fever reducing) and, in higher doses, anti-inflammatory effects. NSAIDs have been widely used for over a century for the treatment of pain ...

Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine are immunosuppressive drugs that are thought to reduce inflammation by blocking the immune system. This review includes 13 randomized trials with a total of 1211 participants. Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine were found to be no more effective than placebo (fake medicine) for inducing remission in Crohn's disease. ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. People with COPD have damaged (inflamed) or narrowed airways (tubes in the lungs), which makes breathing difficult. The symptoms are breathlessness, coughing and phlegm and can vary from mild to severe (where day-to-day activities become limited). The most common ...

Advice from doctors helps people who smoke to quit. Even when doctors provide brief simple advice about quitting smoking this increases the likelihood that someone who smokes will successfully quit and remain a nonsmoker 12 months later. More intensive advice may result in slightly higher rates of quitting. Providing follow-up support after offering ...

Women with cervical cancer that is too big to be removed by surgery, or has spread to the tissues around the cervix (often called locally advanced cervical cancer) may be treated with radiotherapy (treatment with x-rays). They might also get chemotherapy (drug treatment) alongside radiotherapy. This is called chemoradiotherapy (or chemoradiation). This ...

Low-dose aspirin as an antiplatelet therapy is the drug of choice for preventing cardiovascular events, but the potential risk of bleeding has limited its use in myeloproliferative neoplasms in the past. Evidence from this review of 630 people in two trials suggests that, in patients with polycythaemia vera and with no clear indication or contraindication ...

Cranberries (usually as cranberry juice) have been used to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Cranberries contain a substance that can prevent bacteria from sticking on the walls of the bladder. This may help prevent bladder and other UTIs. This review identified 24 studies (4473 participants) comparing cranberry products with control or alternative ...