Smoking interferes with neurocognitive recovery during abstinence from alcohol

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/ace-siw101414.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 21-Oct-2014

Contact: Timothy C. Durazzo, Ph.D.
San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center
David A. Kareken, Ph.D.
Indiana University School of Medicine

Smoking interferes with neurocognitive recovery during abstinence from alcohol

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Durazzo and his colleagues examined a total of 133 ALC participants – 30 had never smoked, 28 were former smokers, and 75 were active smokers – as well as 39 never-smoking "control" participants. Approximately 89 percent of the participants were male. All of the participants were given standardized measures of auditory-verbal and visuospatial learning and memory, processing speed, and working memory. Assessments after one week, four weeks, and eight months of abstinence for the ALC group allowed a comparison of the rates of neurocognitive changes from one to four weeks versus one to eight months of abstinence. The controls completed a baseline assessment and a follow-up approximately nine months later.

"We found that, overall, the ALC as a group showed the greatest rate of recovery on most abilities during the first month of abstinence," said Durazzo. "Over eight months of sustained abstinence from alcohol, active-smoking ALC showed poorer recovery than never-smoking ALC on measures of learning, and both former-smoking ALC and active-smoking ALC recovered less than never-smoking ALC on processing speed measures. In addition, after eight months of abstinence, active-smoking ALC performed worse than both controls and never-smoking ALC on most measures, former-smoking ALC performed worse than never-smoking ALC on several tests, but never-smoking ALC were not different from controls on any measure. Overall, the findings indicated never-smoking ALC showed full recovery on all measures after 8 months of sustained abstinence from alcohol."

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