By Andrew Holtz
CHICAGO, Aug 08 (Reuters Health) - Not only do smoking and drinking often go
together, new research on identical twins indicates nicotine dependence may
influence some people's risk of becoming alcohol dependent, according to
research presented here Monday at the 11th World Conference on Tobacco OR
Health.
Dr. Andrew C. Heath, director of the Missouri Alcoholism Research Center at
Washington University in St. Louis, led an analysis of data on 6,200 Australian
twins.
He said his results show an overlap of alcohol dependence and nicotine
dependence that is only partially explained by history of depression, childhood
behavior problems, and sociodemographic risk factors.
Although the studies do not indicate that regular smoking causes alcohol
dependence, nicotine may play a role in raising the risk of progression to
alcohol-dependent behavior.
"If we look at people who are nicotine-dependent, there may be some causal
link there," Heath told Reuters Health. "If we look at identical twin pairs,
where only one is nicotine-dependent and only one is alcohol-dependent; it's
three times as likely that the nicotine-dependent one is also alcohol-dependent.
Now those pairs are matched for genetic risk, they are matched for family
background risk factors, so it must be something about nicotine dependency
itself that is associated with the increased risk of alcohol dependence."
Heath noted that animal studies hint that nicotine may increase alcohol
tolerance, thus allowing drinkers to consume more alcohol, which in turn
increases the risk of alcohol dependence.
"We may speculate that that is the process, but it is speculation," Heath
added.
