FRIDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) — Overcoming alcoholism is tough enough. That’s one reason many alcoholics who smoke continue to light up even while they’re in recovery from alcohol dependency.
But new research suggests that tackling both addictions simultaneously may offer the best chance of success.
Recovering alcoholics often admit they’re using nicotine as a drug, said Dr. Michael M. Miller, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
“They can tell you, ‘I don’t want to quit [smoking], because it changes the way I feel. I use it to deal with stress,’ ” added Miller, who’s also director of NewStart, a chemical dependency rehabilitation program at Meriter Hospital in Madison, Wis.
A study of alcoholics in treatment for their alcohol problems used brain scans to examine how performance on cognitive tests changes with abstinence from alcohol. Twenty-five alcoholics stopped drinking for six to nine months, but the 12 who smoked continued to smoke.
“We found that the smoking alcoholics over six to nine months of abstinence did not recover certain types of brain function as the non-smoking alcoholics did,” said study author Dieter J. Meyerhoff, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Decision-making skills, thinking speed, 3-D visualization and short-term memory were affected, calling into question the prospects of long-term sobriety, he noted.
And while smoking and non-smoking alcoholics improved on several other cognitive tests, such as learning and remembering words, smokers’ brain function, in general, took longer to recover.
The findings were published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Studies indicate that 60 percent to 75 percent of people in alcohol-treatment programs smoke cigarettes, and 40 percent to 50 percent are “heavy” smokers, consuming more than a pack a day.
Yet treatment for tobacco dependence is not routinely included in alcohol treatment programs, Boston University researchers reported recently in the journal Alcohol Research & Health, published by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
“I would say that over half of chemical dependency treatment agencies now talk about nicotine, encourage patients to stop [smoking] and provide them assistance to stop, such as with nicotine-replacement therapy or prescriptions for Zyban or Champix,” Miller said. “So that’s a tremendous advance.”
Oftentimes, though, smoking is excused. “What you don’t see,” Miller said, “is building nicotine into the treatment plan and considering tobacco use to be a relapse of addiction.”
The concern had been that addressing both dependencies concurrently would pose “too great a difficulty for the patient” and impede recovery from alcoholism, the Boston researchers noted. But studies now suggest that quitting smoking does not derail alcohol treatment — and may even improve the likelihood of longer-term sobriety, they said.
In fact, Miller said studies show that people in recovery for other addictions who delay smoking cessation can later relapse to their chemical dependency because of the stress of quitting smoking six to 18 months later.
“So stopping everything at once — getting all the psychological stress out of the way at once — is the best way to go, and also getting all the physical withdrawal syndromes out of the way at once is the best way to go,” he concluded.
Meyerhoff agreed that tackling smoking as part of an alcohol treatment program is a smart tactic.
“The alcoholics have shown that they are willing to change one behavior, namely excessive drinking,” he said. “If they are in that mindset, it is a great opportunity for treatment specialists to also convince them of the negative effects of continued chronic smoking.”
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has advice for recovering alcoholics on quitting smoking.
SOURCES: Michael M. Miller, M.D., president, American Society of Addiction Medicine, and director, NewStart, Meriter Hospital, Madison, Wis., Dieter J. Meyerhoff, Dr. rer. nat., professor of radiology, University of California, San Francisco; U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Rockville, Md.; February 2006, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research; Vol. 29, No. 3, Alcohol Research & Health
By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter
Last Updated: Oct. 24, 2008
Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Related Links:
Comments (5)
This is a good article. I’ve been a sober alcoholic for quite some time now. Went I initially went to rehab I told the intake counselor I wanted to quit smoking too. They recommended against it and said “Once you have two years sobriety, then take steps to quit smoking. Let’s tackle the biggest problem first.”
I still smoke as I’m addicted to nicotine. I know I need to quit (like yesterday). I wonder how things would have turned out if I would have tried to kick alcohol and nicotine simultaneously.
Dave
ReasonsToStaySober.com
I drank 6 to 10 beers a day and smoked. I gave them both up 1994 with the help {and nagging!} of my boyfriend. Fourteen years later, I do not miss either one.
Hi Dave,
I, too have been sober a long time (21 years) and received the same advice in treatment…to wait to quit smoking. So I did wait for 2 years. I am smoke-free for 19 years now. It was the best thing I ever did besides giving up drugs and alcohol. I work in the field of tobacco addiction and help people to quit smoking every day. I am writing to you to let you know that it is possible to quit and based on new research, it will help you maintain your sobriety (not the other way around). Don’t worry about what did or didn’t happen back then, just make the decision now to quit. I believe it took every cigarette to get you here and that’s a good thing. Check out nicotine anonymous and/or your local health department…you don’t have to do this alone!
After 11 atempts to quit smoking, I was finally successful in January 1985. Realizing how much better I felt, I then had the courage to take a look at my drinking and other substance abusing behaviors and quit them all in January 1987. I have known many smoking recovering addicts and alcoholics that have struggled to quit smoking several years into recovery. I have listened to their stories in smoking cessation workshops that I facilitated. I was glad that I quit smoking before I quit drinking, as I am not so sure I would have been successful had it been the other way around. Many individuals cling to cigarettes as their “only” vice or pleasure. I have watched one sober friend struggle for breath as his oxygen saturation levels
dipped as he lay dying of lung cancer. Another sober diabetic friend was finally free of all substances but tobacco – which she could not give up even while doctors progressively amputated toes, ankles feet and limbs. This article gives me new hope that those seeking recovery from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs can do it “all at once” and better enjoy a full recovery and a return of healthy brain function. And for those in substance abuse treatment settings – why shouldn’t they be supported to quit all drugs at once?
There are many reasons why a woman starts to smoke cigarettes and it is society what has made it really common for us to see woman smoking everywhere, but there are benefits of smoking, and Women smoking cigarettes look better to the eyes of some men