Ban Smoking, Promote Acupuncture in Rehab, Expert Says
COLORADO SPRINGS – Smoking defeats the purpose of drug and alcohol addiction recovery programs and therefore should be banned, said Dr. Elizabeth B. Stuyt, medical director of Circle Program at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, Colo.
Nicotine inhibits new learning in the brain and thus hinders recovery from other chemical dependencies, said Dr. Stuyt, a psychiatrist.
“I don't know how patients can possibly heal while they are smoking, given the neurobiology,” she said in an interview.
At a conference on addictive disorders and behavioral health, Dr. Stuyt said her 90-day inpatient recovery program for patients with comorbid chemical dependencies and psychiatric disorders has banned smoking for the past 5 years. The decision was based partly on the results of her study, which found significantly higher 12-month alcohol and drug addiction recovery rates among nonsmoking participants (50%), compared with those who smoke (14%) (Am. J. Addiction 1997;6:159–67).
Dr. Stuyt says all addictive drugs, including nicotine, have been shown to reduce hippocampal neurogenesis and thus decrease the brain's ability to adapt to new information. Since one of the goals of drug recovery programs is to teach participants how to resist their cravings, allowing them to smoke is counterproductive. Not only does smoking lower the brain's ability to learn this new skill; it also reverses the learned resistance to cravings.
In addition, she said, tobacco is often regarded as a “gateway drug” to other drugs, and smoking relapses in recovering drug and alcohol addicts are considered red flags because they often precede a full relapse.
In a recent study of 440 patients treated in her program between January 2001 and December 2003, she found that those who had been smokers and who planned to return to smoking were less likely to successfully complete the program (54%), compared with nonsmokers (74%).
To help her patients kick their tobacco habit, Dr. Stuyt also recommends auricular acupuncture, which she says is an effective aid in decreasing all cravings. This technique, which is promoted by National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, has almost doubled the number of patients completing her program, she said.
