The Impact of Tobacco Smoking on Treatment for Comorbid Depression and Alcohol Misuse

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use is a major public health concern, and is associated with a number of mental illnesses as well as increased alcohol/other drug (AOD). Research into treatment for individuals experiencing such comorbidities is limited. Design and Methods: Participants (n=447) were those enrolled in the Depression and Alcohol Integrated and Single-focused Interventions project (Baker et al., 2010), and the Self Help for Alcohol/other drugs and DEpression project (Kay-Lambkin, Baker, Kelly, & Lewin, 2011), who reported current depression and hazardous alcohol use at entry to the study. Smoking cessation was not targeted in, nor a goal of, treatment.Results: After controlling for socioeconomic variables, tobacco use was not associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms at baseline; however heavy smokers (30+ cigarettes per day) consumed significantly more alcohol at baseline than did non-smokers (13 vs. 9 standard drinks per day). Baseline smoking severity did not impact on depression or alcohol use outcomes over a 12-month period.Reductions in tobacco use between baseline and 3-month follow-up were significantly associated with reductions in depression and alcohol consumption over the same time period.Discussion and Conclusions: The study results suggest that tobacco use does not interfere with treatment for depression and alcohol use problems, and adds weight to the idea of considering specific treatment for tobacco use in the context of treatment for alcohol/other drug use.

Moderators of outcome in a technology-based intervention to prevent and reduce problem drinking among adolescents

“…Since alcohol and tobacco use often co-occur in adolescents (Haug, Schaub, Gross, John, & Meyer, 2013;McKee & Weinberger, 2013), future studies should investigate whether interventions targeting problematic alcohol use in this age group should be tailored to smoking status in order to improve the effectiveness of such programs. This is in line with implications of research that focused on face-to-face delivered treatment (Kay-Lambkin et al, 2013). In mobile-phone-based interventions, text messages with information about the relationship between alcohol and tobacco use could be sent at times when adolescents typically go out and the probability for using both substances is highest (Jiang & Ling, 2013).…”

Comorbid tobacco and other substance use and symptoms of anxiety and depression among hospitalised orthopaedic trauma patients

“…Further, a binary logistic regression model was used to examine the associations between demographic characteristics, substance use, and rates of symptoms of anxiety and depression and current tobacco use (compared to non-tobacco use). Variables included in the model were selected a priori and included factors known to be associated with tobacco smoking in medically ill and general populations: age, gender, country of birth, education, marital status, household income, [33–35] anxiety, depression, [8, 36] alcohol, and cannabis use. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p -values are presented.…”

A systematic review of technology-assisted interventions for co-morbid depression and substance use

“…Studies were considered eligible if they recruited an adult sample (i.e. 416 years, coinciding with the definition for 'legal age' utilised in international literature in this area), [46][47][48][49][50] with co-morbid depression and SUD as established by clinician-based interview or standardised self-report (i.e. above a predefined cut-off).…”