Patch remedy targets heavy drinkers

It seems too good to be true. Those who hope to cut down on their drinking may be able to turn to a "patch" for help just as millions of smokers have learned to do.

Researchers in the US are working on ways that might put paid to both habits at the same time. If they succeed, non-smoking drinkers could be the next in line for a resolve-boosting aid that is simple, cheap and can be hidden under clothing.

The team at Duke University, North Carolina, includes Jed Rose, a co-inventor of the nicotine patch, who believes their recent work helps explain the interaction between alcohol and nicotine and provides the basis for a new generation of cessation aids. New patches could contain both nicotine, which replaces the active parts of cigarettes as smokers try to wean themselves off the weed, and mecamyline, a compound that reduces a person's desire both to drink and smoke.

He told Chemistry & Industry magazine: "We have observed that mecamylamine, administered in combination with a nicotine patch, reduces alcohol consumption in light drinkers. We hope it can also help heavy drinkers cut down."

Rose and others recently published the results of research, using 48 volunteers, seeking to find out why even small amounts of alcohol seemed to boost the pleasurable effects of nicotine, inducing people to smoke when they were drinking.

This might explain why people tend to smoke more in bars, why alcoholics tend to smoke more than non-alcoholics, and why smokers are more likely to be alcoholics than non-smokers. In the US, 80 to 90 percent of alcoholics smoke, a rate three times that of the general population, while prevalence of alcoholism in smokers is 10 times higher than among non-smokers.

"The combined use of cigarettes and alcohol presents health risks over and above risks posed by smoking alone, and thus constitutes a serious public health problem which deserves additional research attention," Rose said.

Mecamylamine interferes with the reward pathways to the brain which are stimulated by alcohol and nicotine, which both boost concentrations of the nerve messenger dopamine. The compound effectively reduces the enjoyment they give.

The study at Duke found that "a relatively low dose of alcohol, below that required to induce any measurable euphoria, was enough to increase enjoyment of nicotine significantly. In the light of the current finding, it makes sense that so many people who have quit smoking relapse when they drink."

Therefore, the study argued, mecamylamine might offer a novel treatment to tackle both drugs.

"Such an approach to smoking cessation would work especially well for drinkers as it would dampen both desires," it said.