Finding The Link Between Smoking And Drinking

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There is a new study in the journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry Edition that takes a look at something that makes a great deal of sense.

There are many patients I see in the office that say that they don't smoke cigarettes and that they have "kicked the habit," so to speak.

The only time they smoke is when they are having drinks because, earlier in their life when they were smokers, they used to smoke cigarettes while they were having alcoholic beverages.

The study is a two-phase study being conducted at Columbia and Yale and, after the first part of the study, the researchers have found that people who are given medications to help them quit smoking find that they also have reduced the amount of alcohol that they have been drinking.

The important information will be finding the link and just what parts of the brain impact this behavior and associated responses.