Cigarette smoking history is associated with poorer recovery in multiple neurocognitive domains following treatment for an alcohol use disorder

Abstract

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Brain Structure and Function in Recovery

“…However, individuals homozygous for VAL were more likely to show hippocampal volume increases across the test interval. Contrary to other reports from this research group, 44 smoking did not affect initial or recovery measures.…”

“…Age played a significant role in this relationship, with older active smokers evincing the least improvement over time. 43 In a recent follow-up study, Durazzo and Meyerhoff 44 compared people with AUD who were either never smokers (nvsALC), former smokers (fsALC), or active smokers (asALC) with a healthy control group. All participants were tested twice: The AUD groups were assessed at about 30 days of abstinence and again at about 8 months of sustained abstinence, and the control group was tested and retested at a similar interval.…”

Do Social Cognition Deficits Recover with Abstinence in Alcohol‐Dependent Patients?

“…In addition, performing the analysis without the small number of ADP with comorbidity ( n = 9, except smoking) revealed the same pattern of findings, further underscoring the relative independence of persistent social cognition deficits in ADP (Bora and Zorlu, 2017; Foisy et al, 2007). Due to the low number of nonsmoking ADP, we abstained from further analysis, but we controlled for smoking in our HC (Durazzo and Meyerhoff, 2020).…”

“…Of the few longitudinal neurocognitive studies in AUD, many lack a longitudinal design for both, patients and healthy control groups, and thus, practice effects (as a possible explanation for “recovery” effects) cannot be excluded (Schulte et al, 2014). Other factors associated with inconsistent findings and suggested to possibly impact on cognitive recovery in AUD have been discussed with recency and severity of drinking, age (older age, earlier onset of regular drinking), gender differences, and smoking (Charlet et al, 2018; Durazzo and Meyerhoff, 2020; Maillard et al, 2020; Meyerhoff and Durrazo, 2020; Nguyen‐Louie et al, 2017; Pitel et al, 2009), number of prior detoxifications, and a positive family history (Charlet et al, 2018; Loeber et al, 2010; Schulte et al, 2014).…”

The Many Levels of Relapse to Drinking: Commentary on Meyerhoff and Durazzo (ACER 2020)

“…Although evidence exists for brain functional and structural differences to distinguish positive compared with negative family history of alcoholism and therefore is preexisting (Begleiter and Porjesz, 1990), equally compelling longitudinal evidence now abounds for excessive alcohol use to result in regional brain volume declines (Pfefferbaum et al, 2018b;Sullivan et al, 2018) and selective neuropsychological impairments (e.g., Durazzo and Meyerhoff, 2020). Clearly, change toward normal levels of brain tissue volumes (Durazzo et al, 2015) and white matter integrity (Pfefferbaum et al, 2014) together with improvement in neuropsychological functioning beyond simple practice effects (Durazzo and Meyerhoff, 2020;Sullivan et al, 2000) has been observed with quantitative, longitudinal assessment and provides evidence for a role for changes in drinking levels to be causative. Conversely, prospective studies of adolescents before and after initiating appreciable alcohol drinking reported accelerated gray matter volume loss predominantly in frontal cortex compared with adolescents who remained no-to-low drinkers (Pfefferbaum et al, 2018a).…”