(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A recent study reveals coffee and
cigarette use among Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members is greater
than among the U.S. population. Researchers want to find out what
type of impact these two items have on recovering alcoholics.
"Drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes are part of the
culture of AA, but we knew little about the degree to which this
occurred, how much more prevalent these behaviors were compared to
the general American populations, or why AA participants actually
drank coffee or smoked cigarettes," said Peter R. Martin, director
of the Vanderbilt Addiction Center at the Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine, and corresponding author for the study. While
the most common cause of death in long-term recovering alcoholics
is related to the health consequences of cigarette smoking, Martin
noted, recent epidemiological studies have shown coffee consumption
is not harmful to heath and may, in fact, reduce the risk of death
from suicide, certain cancers and other diseases.
Martin and his colleagues asked 289 people in open AA
meetings during the summer of 2007 in Nashville, TN to self-report
coffee and cigarette consumption. Almost 90 percent of people
consumed coffee and about 33 percent drank more than four cups per
day. The most common reasons were because of coffee's stimulatory
effects and greater alertness. More than half of the respondents
smoked cigarettes. The most common reason was because of smoking's
reduction of depression and anxiety. "If coffee is beneficial and
cigarettes are harmful to health, AA members seem to be going in
the right direction," observed Martin.
Other researchers say little is known about coffee's role in
fighting alcohol addiction. "It's possible that coffee is even a
gateway drug, with coffee drinking beginning at about the time
persons begin using alcohol," Robert Swift, professor of psychiatry
and human behavior at Brown University Medical School, was quoted
as saying.
The strength of this study, Swift added, is that relatively
little is known about AA, why some persons are helped by it while
others are not.
SOURCE:
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Sign up for a free weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs
called First to Know by
clicking here.
