The difference between placebos and some homeopathic preparations is academic. The trial involved sixty subjects, all children. According to Reuters, in January the Red Cross supplied not only food, water, and fresh clothes, but cigarettes as well, to the hostages held at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru. A former hostage said that the nonsmokers among the hostages had insisted on the establishment of smoking and nonsmoking areas in the residence. The procedure merits further study in humans.
Research suggests that it's harder for miserable people to quit smoking than for cheerful people.
In a study published in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , for example, Harvard University researchers found that of 269 cigarette smokers who attempted to break the habit, only 37 percent of those who were depressed remained nonsmokers for a week, compared with 56 percent of the nondepressed. The authors also found that of the depressed subjects, only 12.5 percent remained nonsmokers for three months with placebo chewing gum, while 29.5 percent succeeded with nicotine gum. The results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,004 adults conducted in December 1996 suggest that most Americans don't know what public-health professionals do. New tobacco substitute. An Australian electrical engineer who chewed about a yard of electrical cable daily for 10 years to relieve smoking withdrawal symptoms wound up with lead poisoning, according to the Australian Medical Journal .