Kicking The Butt Increases Soberness

Kicking the butt would not only improve your health, but would also increase your chances of staying sober, say researchers.

It is well known that trying to quit smoking and drinking at the same time will undermine treatment for alcohol dependence.

However, most studies have reported that efforts to quit smoking either have no impact on maintaining sobriety or actually increase success of alcohol treatment.

According to the federal guidelines, tobacco dependence can be treated with a combination of counselling and medication.

Researchers have found that when smoking cessation support was delayed by six months, study participants were more likely to remain sober compared with those who received concurrent treatment for both addictions.

But a follow-up analysis found that this might have been true only for white people in the study.

However, Dr. Michael Miller, editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, notes that no single approach is best for every person struggling with both alcohol and nicotine addiction.

The report appears in June 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter