Background: Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death worldwide. No systematic review is available on the situation of the smoking in Iran, so we decided to provide an overview of the studies in the field of smoking in Iranian populations.Methods: Published Persian-language papers of all types until 2009 indexed in the IranMedex (http: //www.iranmedex.com) and Magiran (http: //www.magiran.com). Reports of World Health Organization were also searched and optionally employed. The studies concerning passive smoking or presenting the statistically insignificant side effects were excluded. Databases were searched using various combinations of the following terms: Cigarette, smoking, smoking cessation, prevalence, history, side effects, and lung cancer by independent reviewers. All the 83 articles concerning the prevalence or side effects of the smoking habit in any Iranian population were selected. The prevalence rate of daily Cigarette smoking and the 95% confidence interval as well as smoking health risk associated odds ratio (OR) were retrieved from the articles or calculated.Results: The reported prevalence rates of the included studies, the summary of smoking-related side effects and the ORs (95%CI) of smoking associated risks and the available data on smoking cessation in Iran have been shown in the article.Conclusion: Because of lack of certain data, special studies on local pattern of tobacco use in different districts, about the relationship between tobacco use and other diseases, especially non communicable diseases, and besides extension of smoking cessation strategies, studies on efficacy of these methods seems to be essential in this field.

Objective: smoking is a worldwide health problem. Despite recent efforts to reduce the rate of smoking, adolescent smoking still remains a significant public health concern.Current study was conducted to determine the effects of socio-environmental and personal factors on the smoking among adolescents.Methods: In the first stage of a longitudinal study of smoking in adolescents, 1785 students in Tabriz city were randomly selected. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information about demographic characteristics and self-esteem of the subjects and their attitude towards smoking. Information was also gathered about the smoking habits of the subjects, their families and friends. The association of different variables with smoking was evaluated by a logistic regression model and Chi square test using SPSS.Results: Mean age of the subjects was 16.3 ± 0.87 years. 77.4% of them reported that they never smoked. 18.2% had experimented the Cigarette smoking at least once. But 4.4% said that they were regular smokers.Having a smoker family member (OR=1.40) or a smoker friend (OR=3.43) and a positive attitude toward smoking (OR=1.23) were significantly associated with a higher prevalence of smoking.Conclusion: An educational program aimed at changing the attitude towards smoking may be a successful primary prevention method.

Introduction: Acne is a common problem in adolescent and young age groups, for which several risk factors have been suggested. One of the risk factors is smoking. In studies on the relationship between smoking and acne, conflicting results have been obtained.Method: This study was conducted on 133 male patients who were visited at the dermatology clinic of Imam Reza hospital due to acne as the case group, and 133 healthy individuals without any skin diseases including acne among those accompanying the patients as the control group. The case and the control groups were age matched. For each patient who had the criteria for inclusion in the study, a questionnaire was completed and the necessary information was collected and then analyzed statistically.Result: The questionnaires were filled for 133 patients with acne and 133 healthy controls. Twenty-nine patients with acne (21.8%) and 12 patients in the control group (9.1%) were smokers, and the difference between them was significant (P=0.004). The number of Cigarettes smoked per day was significantly different in the two groups (4.75 in the case group versus 1.88 in the control group). No correlation was found between smoking and acne localization, severity of acne, the type of lesion, symptomatic or asymptomatic nature of acne and acne complications. In the case group, the smokers developed acne at an older age than the non-smokers.Conclusion: Patients with acne were more likely to smoke than patients without acne, thus, smoking might be a factor affecting the incidence of acne.

introduction: Crystal is one the pernicious addictive drugs which has unfortunately been imported to Iran in the recent years. As Crystal is the purified form of Heroin, its adverse effects are much more serious than those of Heroin. Apart from psychological effects, addiction to Crystal may have adverse effects on organs and tissues. So, the evaluation of enzymatic changes could be helpful in identifying the origin of damages. Alkaline phosphatase is present in most tissues and the most prevalent cause of its elevation is liver and bone diseases. Since liver damages may be caused by Heroin consumption, assaying ALP levels could be useful for investigating the adverse effects of this drug.Materials and Methods: This study is a case control study which was carried out on 50 control persons and 108 crystal addicts who referred to Salehabad Center of Drug Addiction Treatment (Torbat jam) for the first time during 2008-2010. The activity level of Alkaline phosphatase in the serum was measured with Calorimetry-Spectrophotometry Using computer software SPSS-16, t-test was used to analyze the data.Results: The results of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between Crystal consumption and the serum level of ALP in both groups (P= 0.001). Besides, the relationships between the duration of Crystal consumption with Alkaline phosphatase level and Cigarette smoking were significant.Conclusion: Our results revealed that Crystal consumption is an important factor for elevating the ALP serum level in Crystal addicts.

Background: smoking causes 5.2 million deaths annually in the world of which 70% occur in developing countries. Hookah smoking is increasing around the world especially in the Eastern Mediterranean Region including Iran. This study was carried out to evaluate the pattern of tobacco smoking in both forms of Cigarette and hookah smoking.Materials and Methods: A cross- sectional study was conducted among a random population in the main squares of Tehran in 2006. The sample size consisted of 2053 people in the age range of 10 to 80 years. Non-Probability Sampling method was used. Questionnaires designed and adapted according to WHO and IUATLD questionnaires given to these people. Results: Forty-six percent of the sample had experienced hookah smoking. The prevalence of occasional hookah smoking in the previous year was 45% , while 10% of the participants used hookah at least once a week, 17.9% at least once a month and 17.1% at least once a year;47.2% of participants had experienced Cigarette smoking. Prevalence of daily Cigarette smoking was 22.7%; 22.7% of current smokers and 25.01% of non-smokers consumed hookah at least once a week. Conclusion: Prevalence of hookah smoking is very similar among Cigarette smokers and non-smokers. In this study the prevalence of Cigarette smokers was more than national data and the rate of Cigarette and hookah smoking among women was higher than that of other studies in this realm. These issues need to be further investigated and more serious studies are required in this regard.

Background: Nicotine dependence typically occurs in adolescence. It is identified as a critical health problem. Despite attempts to limit access to Cigarettes by young persons, the rank of adolescence nicotine dependence is growing. Rates of smoking vary in different sociodemographic groups, and these group differences remain to be understood. Method: Male high school students who were selected by stratified random sampling participated to complete questionnaires about smoking, its correlates, situations, and smoking cessations. Results: Of the 812 participants, 11.5% were nicotine dependent for at least 6 months. About half of our sample started smoking at the age 13 or less. All of them smoked less than 10 Cigarettes per day. The most common reasons of smoking were its pleasure, to suppress anger, , anxiety, and depression, respectively. smoking in authority figures in . high school and in their friends was correlated to nicotine dependence. More than half of the students had a history of smoking cessation, but, most of them have relapsed in temptation situations. The major motives to quit smoking were to achieve more physical competence, request of an authority figure, and worry about smoking related diseases. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking rate in our sample was nearly equal to the general population in Iran. As smoking initiation in the Lower age is much more important than the amount of smoking, the risk. of heavy smoking and worse consequences in these students is high. It is suggested to investigate mood and anxiety disorders in the students, because most of them started to smoke in different negative situation such as, anger and depression. Significant correlation. Between smoking in authority figures and friends in the high school, and friends in the high dependence in our sample, suggests prohibition of Cigarette smoking in public places, especially in high schools. Moreover, behaviour therapy, such as assertiveness and social skills therapy such g is suitable in prevention and relapse prevention in the students.