Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center found that after one month of sobriety, recovering alcoholics who smoked showed significantly less improvement than those who did not smoke in both brain function and neurochemical markers of brain cell health.
Dieter Meyerhoff, a radiology researcher says, "This study suggests that for better brain recovery, it may be beneficial for alcoholics in early abstinence to stop smoking as well."
The study published in the March 2006 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, outlines how researchers examined 25 recovering alcoholics - 14 smokers and 11 nonsmokers - using spectroscopic imaging, a magnetic resonance imaging technique.
The study authors caution professionals who treat alcoholism to consider adding smoking cessation to their usual treatment plans.
