Many Recovering Alcoholics Depend on Coffee, Cigarettes

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"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.

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"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.

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