NIH study links cigarette cessation with drug, alcohol addiction recovery
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A new federal study is linking the ability to quit smoking with longer-term success from the grip of drug or alcohol addiction, as well.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday said that fresh data in its nearly 15-year-old ongoing PATH study with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is suggesting that sustained remission from drug or alcohol addiction is more likely to be achieved if a person also quits cigarettes at the same time versus separately.
The PATH study, or Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, has been ongoing for more than a decade in an attempt to better understand the health effects of smoking.
"It underscores the importance of addressing different addictions together, rather than in isolation," Dr. Nora Volkow director of NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement.
Health officials pointed out that people in addiction also have a higher likelihood of being addicted to nicotine.
The longitudinal NIH analysis showed a 42% greater odd of going from a "current" to "former" smoker if a person is already working in a recovery stage from a non-tobacco vice.
Volkow added that NIH national sampling is "strong evidence" that quitting cigarette smoking "predicts improved recovery from other substance use disorders."
The federally funded PATH study analyzed more than 2,650 participants age 18 or older with a history of substance abuse but with a change in recovery over a four-year period. As part of the study, NIH researchers asked annual questions of participants concerning smoking habits and use of other items.
"Although the health benefits of quitting smoking are well-known, smoking cessation has not been seen as a high priority in drug addiction treatment programs," stated Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of NIDA and the study's senior author.
The study's authors highlighted it's uniqueness but noted it was only suggestive in nature, that prior studies had utilized addiction-specific data out of U.S. drug and alcohol treatment centers that "could not adequately test for an association" with cigarette smoking.
Compton said the findings "bolster support for including smoking cessation as part of addiction treatment."
Officials at NIH said its researchers have an "increasing confidence" in the belief the new finding are "generalizable to the millions of adults" in the throes of alcohol or drug addiction in the United States.
However, they added that further research is needed to "definitively establish" a causal connection.
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