Tobacco.org

• Smoking Interferes With Recovery From Alcohol-related Brain Damage 

Alcohol-use disorders (AUDs) can damage the brain, particularly the frontal and parietal cortices, although this damage is at least partially reversible with sustained abstinence from alcohol. Chronic smoking is extremely common among individuals with AUDs. A new study has used longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain blood flow to show that smoking makes it harder for brain blood flow to recover from long-term heavy drinking. "The brain's frontal lobes are involved in higher-order cognitive function, such as learning, short-term memory, reasoning, planning, problem solving, and emotional control," explained Anderson Mon, senior research fellow in the department of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and corresponding author for the study. "The parietal lobes are involved in aspects of attentional regulation and visuospatial processing. Chronic and excessive drinking is associated with neurobiological abnormalities in these regions, which contribute to the cognitive dysfunction frequently observed in those with AUDs after detoxification."

Cerebral perfusion is a measure of the amount of blood flow to brain tissue per unit time. . . .

Mon added that these findings are consistent with their earlier neuroimaging studies which found chronic smoking in ALC patients was associated with significantly diminished recovery of markers of neuronal, or nerve cell, and cell membrane integrity in multiple brain regions over the same period as this present study.

"These results suggest that patients who want to stop drinking should be offered an option to stop smoking," said Graeme Mason, associate professor of diagnostic radiology and psychiatry at Yale University. "However, any combined cessation has to be designed carefully."

Jump to full article »