The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was developed to improve the reliability and validity of the Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire. In this study, we examined the applicability of the Spanish version of such test as well as its relationship to sex, age, and consumption of cigarettes, in a representative sample of smokers from Galicia, Spain ( N = 646).

Studies all over the world suggest that severe mental illness, including schizophrenia and mood disorders, is associated with tobacco smoking. This study, combining samples from the United States and Spain, had 3 objectives: (1) to test the hypothesis that severely mentally ill patients who smoke are more likely to have a high nicotine dependence when compared with control smokers, (2) to compare frequencies of high nicotine dependence in controls in both countries, and (3) to compare frequencies of high nicotine dependence in severely mentally ill patients in both countries. Scores on the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) for 4 samples of current daily smokers were analyzed. The sample sizes of the U.S. and Spanish control groups were 129 and 646 subjects, respectively. The diagnoses for the U.S. patients were DSM-IV schizophrenia, 74% (89/120), and DSM-IV mood disorders, 26% (31/120). The diagnoses for the Spanish patients were DSM-IV schizophrenia, 87% (173/199), and DSM-III-R mood disorders, 13% (26/199). High nicotine dependence (FTND score > or = 6) was the dependent variable in 5 logistic regression analyses. The main findings were that (1) severely mentally ill patients had significantly higher frequencies of high nicotine dependence than controls (odds ratio [OR] = 10.59, 95% CI = 7.31 to 15.34) even after controlling for gender, country, interaction between country and mental illness, and age; (2) U.S. controls had significantly higher frequencies of high nicotine dependence than Spanish controls (OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 2.02 to 5.00); and (3) U.S. and Spanish patients did not have significantly different frequencies of high nicotine dependence. New studies, specially designed to test for transcultural differences in nicotine dependence, are needed to verify that nicotine dependence in severely mentally ill patients is consistently high and similar in different countries.

The family plays a fundamental role in the prevention and treatment of substance use. Parental styles are among the family variables most widely studied. This review covers the studies published in the last 30 years on the relationship between parental styles and their offspring's drug use. Research indicates that the authoritative style is the most protective against substance use, whilst the neglectful style would increase the risk of drug use; research on the authoritarian and permissive styles is as yet inconclusive. We discuss the need to take into account other family variables in addition to parental style, such as parents’ drug use, emotional support and warmth, family structure and the influence of culture.

A number of previous studies have indicated that pathological gambling is often associated with depression. Equally, a number of theoretical models of pathological gambling have included depression as a key variable. Here we report a study of depression in pathological gamblers identified within a random sample of 1,615 adults living in the major cities of Galicia (northwest Spain). Pathological gamblers were identified on DSM–IV diagnostic criteria. Depression was evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory, subjects being classified ‘depressive’ if they obtained a score of 18 or more. Of 19 pathological gamblers who completed the Beck Depression Inventory, 21% were depressive; by contrast, only 9% of the other subjects were depressive. The Beck scores of pathological gamblers were positively correlated with the severity of their addiction as indicated by the number of DSM–IV-specified symptoms reported.