12 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2018
QUITTING SMOKING:
UPPING REHAB SUCCESS
THE
OPIOID
CRISIS
By EDEN LAIKIN
Ryan H. of West Babylon started
smoking cigarettes at the age of
13. Alcohol soon followed, then
marijuana and harder drugs. He
went to his first substance abuse
treatment facility at age 17.
Over the next nine years, he tried all
kinds of ways to stop using drugs.
He moved, joined the military,
tried different religions. At age 26,
when his pain got great enough, he
managed to finally stop using and
has been clean for the last three years.
It was only once he was abstinent
from drugs for a little while that he
realized his cigarette smoking was as
strong and debilitating an addiction
as any other he battled.
“When I couldn’t get cigarettes because
I couldn’t afford them, I’d be flipping
couch cushions to try and find enough
change to buy some or wondering
what I could sell to get a few dollars,”
he says. “When I was running low, I’d
get that same feeling of panic as I did
when I was using drugs.”
He finally quit smoking cold turkey
after three weeks of what he calls
painful withdrawal.
“I think if I would have quit smoking
sooner, I would have woken up sooner
to the fact that I was an addict,” he
adds. “If you’ve been unable to stay
clean and you’re still smoking, it
could definitely be a factor.”
There is research that concurs.
Experts say tobacco dependence is a
chronic addictive disease.
A 2017 study by researchers at
Columbia University’s School
of Public Health and the City
University of New York found
that people recovering from illicit
drug abuse are twice as likely to
be successful if they don’t smoke
cigarettes. The study was supported
by the National Institutes of Health/
National Institute on Drug Abuse
and appears online in The Journal of
Clinical Psychiatry.
The researchers studied data
from 34,653 adults enrolled in the
National Epidemiologic Survey on
Alcohol and Related Conditions,
but only those with a history of illicit
substance use disorders according
to The Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-V) criteria were included in
the final sample.
Researchers have long explored
the connection between tobacco
dependence and illicit drug
addiction, citing as one possible
reason that nicotine, alcohol,
and drugs of abuse all stimulate
overlapping pathways in the brain
that are involved in addictive
behaviors.
DSM-V diagnoses Tobacco Use
Disorder and states that tobacco
products contain nicotine, an
ingredient that can lead to addiction.
As with other drugs, it produces
dependence and withdrawal
symptoms upon cessation.
Statistics show that between 75
percent and 98 percent of people
with Substance Use Disorder also
use tobacco, compared to only about
17 percent of U.S. adults in general.
Also last year, Eric MacLaren, who
has a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and
is a freelance medical writer in the
field of drug abuse, published these
findings on drugabuse.com:
• Patients in drug treatment who
voluntarily quit have more total
days abstinent from drugs and
alcohol one year later than those
who never stopped smoking.
• 74 percent of smokers who
quit during treatment remained
abstinent from alcohol and drugs
after five years, compared to 50
percent who did not quit smoking.
• Patients who quit smoking in their
first year of recovery are more likely to
be abstinent from alcohol than smokers
(53 percent vs. 40 percent) and drugs (82
percent vs. 72 percent) after nine years.
Bettina Bove, a Long Island-based
licensed clinical social worker, says
the studies sound logical.
“If an addicted person stops using
all addicting chemicals then it
would stop that rebound effect
and increase the odds of stable
abstinence,” she says. “Addiction
is inherent in a person, not in the
specific substance used … Any
mood or mind-altering substance
can be substituted and trigger the
addictive nature and a relapse.”
Critics of the study say asking
patients to quit cigarette smoking
while they try to stop using drugs is
“too difficult,” or will hurt patients’
chances of successfully getting sober.
Research fails to bear that out.
But Eddie F. of Massapequa says it’s
true for him.
“If I had to give up cigarettes when I
got clean, I’m not sure if I would be
here now,” he says. “It took me eight
more years of smoking. And I just
celebrated 22 years clean.”
The New York State Quitline, a
free service to help residents stop
using tobacco, can be reached at
1-866-NY QUITS (697-8487) or at
nysmokefree.com.
Researchers found that people recovering from illicit drug abuse are twice as likely to be successful if they
don’t smoke cigarettes.