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Nicotine Clue To Other Disorders

The prevalence of nicotine dependence among those suffering from alcohol dependence is as high as 50%. In fact, smokers with a long history of alcohol dependence are more likely to die of smoking-related diseases rather than alcohol-related diseases. Past research also shows an association between nicotine dependence, addictive diseases, and psychiatric disorders. This large scale study examined the socio-demographic factors and mental disorders associated with nicotine dependence among alcohol dependent persons.
From a US national survey of 43,000 adults, responses were examined from 4782 subjects with lifetime alcohol dependence. Comparisons were made between those with and those without nicotine dependence. Mood and anxiety disorders included in the survey were panic disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobia, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive episode, and manic episode.

Nicotine dependence was found to be associated with a higher risk of almost every assessed mental and addictive disorder.  This finding is in line with previous studies suggesting that antisocial personality disorder, depression, and other drug dependencies are associated with alcohol and tobacco dependence. However this new research differs in three main aspects. First, the size of the sample of alcohol-dependent subjects is about four times more than previous work.  Second, a nationally representative sample was used, whereas previous work surveyed only alcohol-dependent outpatients or families. Third, the association of nicotine dependence with 20 psychiatric and addictive diagnoses among alcohol-dependent subjects showed that nicotine dependence is associated with a broader spectrum of disorders ranging from anxiety to mood disorders, and from antisocial to addictive disorders.

These findings are of interest since comorbidities are associated with a less favorable prognosis. Thus, patients suffering from alcohol and nicotine dependence should be carefully assessed for accompanying psychiatric and other addictive disorders. The researchers concluded that nicotine dependence represents a general marker of psychiatric and particularly of addictive comorbidity and can be used as a screening measure for psychiatric diagnoses in clinical practice.

(Le Strat,Y, Ramoz,N, Gorwood, P, : In alcohol dependent drinkers, what does the presence of nicotine dependence tell us about psychiatric and addictive disorders comorbidity? Alcohol and Alcoholism 45: 167-172, 2010)

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One Response to “Nicotine Clue to Other Disorders”

1. Zoe says:

   January 11, 2011 at 12:08 am

   Perhaps the increase is due to nicotine having a positive effect in reduction of OCD symptoms as noted in other studies. It may be that people are self medicating with nicotine for these other disorders as well.