Mindfulness-Based Interventions for the Treatment of Substance and Behavioral Addictions: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Emotion (dys)regulation as well as the interventions for improving these difficulties are receiving a growing attention in the literature. The aim of the present paper was to conduct a systematic review about the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in both substance and behavioral addictions (BAs). METHOD: A literature search was conducted using Cochrane, PubMed, and Web of Science. Fifty-four randomized controlled trials published in English since 2009 to April 2017 were included into a narrative synthesis. RESULTS: Mindfulness-based interventions were applied in a wide range of addictions, including substance use disorders (from smoking to alcohol, among others) and BAs (namely, gambling disorder). These treatments were successful for reducing dependence, craving, and other addiction-related symptoms by also improving mood state and emotion dysregulation. The most commonly used MBI approaches were as follows: Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, Mindfulness Training for Smokers, or Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, and the most frequent control group in the included studies was Treatment as Usual (TAU). The most effective approach was the combination of MBIs with TAU or other active treatments. However, there is a lack of studies showing the maintenance of the effect over time. Therefore, studies with longer follow-ups are needed. CONCLUSION: The revised literature shows support for the effectiveness of the MBIs. Future research should focus on longer follow-up assessments as well as on adolescence and young population, as they are a vulnerable population for developing problems associated with alcohol, drugs, or other addictions.

Contribution of yeast and base wine supplementation to sparkling wine composition.

BACKGROUND: The differential characteristic of sparkling wine is the formation of foam, which is dependent, among other factors, on yeast autolysis, aging and oenological practices. In this study, we analyzed the effects of yeast strain, nutrient supplementation to the base wine and aging process on the sparkling wine composition and its foamability. RESULTS: We determined that the addition of inorganic nitrogen promoted nitrogen liberation to the extracellular medium, while the addition of inactive dry yeast to the base wine caused an increase in the polysaccharide concentration and foaming properties of the sparkling wine. The use of synthetic and natural base wines allowed us to discriminate that the differences in high-molecular-weight polysaccharides and oligosaccharides could be attributed to the yeast cells and that the higher nitrogen content in the natural wine could be due to external proteolysis. CONCLUSION: The practices of nitrogen addition and supplementation of inactive dry yeast could modulate the main characteristics of the sparkling wine and be a critical element for the design of this kind of wine. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Nitrogen requirements of commercial wine yeast strains during fermentation of a synthetic grape must.

Nitrogen deficiencies in grape musts are one of the main causes of stuck or sluggish wine fermentations. Currently, the most common method for dealing with nitrogen-deficient fermentations is adding supplementary nitrogen (usually ammonium phosphate). However, it is important to know the specific nitrogen requirement of each strain, to avoid excessive addition that can lead to microbial instability and ethyl carbamate accumulation. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of increasing nitrogen concentrations of three different nitrogen sources on growth and fermentation performance in four industrial wine yeast strains. This task was carried out using statistical modeling techniques. The strains PDM and RVA showed higher growth-rate and maximum population size and consumed nitrogen much more quickly than strains ARM and TTA. Likewise, the strains PDM and RVA were also the greatest nitrogen demanders. Thus, we can conclude that these differences in nitrogen demand positively correlated with higher growth rate and higher nitrogen uptake rate. The most direct effect of employing an adequate nitrogen concentration is the increase in biomass, which involves a higher fermentation rate. However, the impact of nitrogen on fermentation rate is not exclusively due to the increase in biomass because the strain TTA, which showed the worst growth behavior, had the best fermentation activity. Some strains may adapt a strategy whereby fewer cells with higher metabolic activity are produced. Regarding the nitrogen source used, all the strains showed the better and worse fermentation performance with arginine and ammonium, respectively.