- FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) — Of the more than 1 million
Americans who join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), almost all drink coffee and
close to 60 percent smoke, Vanderbilt University researchers report.

Most recovering alcoholics drink coffee for its stimulatory effects,
and smoking reduces feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability, the
researchers noted.

“Normally, coffee drinking and cigarette smoking go together,” said
lead researcher Dr. Peter R. Martin, director of the Vanderbilt Addiction
Center. “But recovering alcoholics tend to smoke less than drink
coffee.”

About 90 percent drink coffee, but only about 60 percent smoke
cigarettes, Martin said. “That's interesting disassociation between the
two behaviors,” he said.

The report is published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical
and Experimental Research.

In the study, Martin's team asked 289 AA members about their coffee and
cigarette and alcohol consumption.

Of the 88.5 percent who drank coffee, 33 percent drank more than four
cups a day. Most reported drinking coffee did make them feel better and
helped them concentrate and be more alert.

Of the AA members, 56.9 percent smoked. Among smokers, 78.7 percent
smoked at least half a pack a day and more than 60 percent considered
themselves highly dependent on cigarettes.

The benefits of smoking were the reduction of negative feelings,
including depression and anxiety and irritability. These feelings were
likely to contribute to new bouts of drinking, Martin said.

The remaining question is whether drinking coffee and smoking
cigarettes plays a role in recovering from alcoholism, Martin said. “Is
there something in coffee that may be protective against relapse? Is there
something in cigarettes that may actually reduce the likelihood of
relapse?” he asked.

Selena Bartlett, the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation Investigator at the
Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center of the University of California,
San Francisco, thinks that the reliance on cigarettes by most recovering
alcoholics has a biological basis and may actually increase the chances of
relapse.

“This finding supports the potential role that nicotine can play in
alcohol addiction,” Bartlett said.

In animal experiments, Bartlett found that nicotine can cause relapses
to alcohol drinking. “But we don't know how nicotine and alcohol react to
keep each other going,” she said.

Nicotine has its own specific system in the brain, and alcohol may
interact with that system, Bartlett said. Recovering alcoholics who
continue to smoke may be more likely to relapse than nonsmokers, she
added.

“My prediction would be that the relapse rate among smokers is higher,”
Bartlett said.

Bartlett thinks that nicotine addiction and alcohol addiction need to
be treated together. To that end, she is involved in the study using the
smoking cessation drug Chantix to see if both alcohol and nicotine
addiction can be treated with this single medication.

“The drug inhibits the effect of nicotine, and by doing that, you may
also reduce the euphoric effects of alcohol at the same time,” Bartlett
said. “We already have some evidence that it may work.”

More information

For more about alcoholism, visit the U.S. National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.