Rationale  » Toll of Tobacco on People in Treatment and Recovery

The Toll of Tobacco on People in Chemical Dependency Treatment and Recovery

In the general population, the consequences of tobacco dependence have been well documented (Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2006; CDC, 2004): 

• Smoking kills over 440,000 Americans a year - more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined. (CDC, 2004)
  
  
• Tobacco use leads to over $194.3 billion in annual health care and productivity costs, approximately $10.28 per pack of cigarettes sold. (CDC, 2006)  

The toll on people who have been treated for chemical dependency has been less well documented. Here are some highlights:

• People with a DSM-IV diagnosis (not including nicotine dependence) consume 44 percent of all tobacco sold in the U.S. (Lasser, et. al, 2000). When you include nicotine dependence, that number becomes 70 percent (Grant et.al, 2004).
  
  
• People who receive treatment for chemical dependency more die as a result of their tobacco use than as a consequence of the chemical dependencies they were treated for:
  
  
  • Among recorded deaths of alcoholics during a 20-year period after receiving inpatient treatment, 51% were tobacco-related, while 34% were alcohol-related; the observed mortality was 48.1% vs. an expected 18.5% for the group (Hurt et al., 1996)
    
  • Among treated heroin addicts, the death rate of smokers was 4 times that of nonsmokers (Hser et al., 1994).
    
  • Among a cohort of 581 male heroin addicts followed over a 33 year period, tobacco use was responsible for 23.4 percent of confirmed deaths as compared to 21.6 percent for accidental drug poisoning/overdose, 19.5 percent for suicide/homicide/accidents, and 15.2 percent for chronic liver disease (Hser et al, 2001)
    
    
• Tobacco dependence has led to the deaths of hundreds of celebrities, including a few names familiar to people in the chemical dependency field:
  
  
• Sigmund Freud
• Bill Wilson
• Dr. Bob Smith
• Charles Dederich
• Caroline Knapp
  

Tobacco use impedes recovery of brain functioning damaged by chronic alcohol use (Durazzo et al., 2007; Durazzo et al., 2006; Durazzo et al., 2004).

 

 

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