SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 Smoking may interfere with an alcoholic's recovery during the first six to nine months of alcohol abstinence, a University of California study found.
Corresponding study author Timothy C. Durazzo, of the University of California San Francisco, says non-smoking alcoholics showed a significantly greater level of recovery than smoking alcoholics in the areas of mental efficiency; higher-level reasoning and problem-solving; visual-spatial processing skills and working or short-term memory.
Given that the mortality associated with cigarette smoking is nearly four times greater than the mortality related to alcohol-induced diseases, and given our findings ... perhaps chronic smokers entering treatment for substance abuse and alcoholism should consider concurrent participation in a smoking-cessation program,
Durazzo said.
The observed differences are not likely associated with nicotine, per se. Rather, they are associated with exposure to the many toxins in smoke, according to the study published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
