NIH researchers based in Maryland, USA say that people who quit smoking increased their odds of recovering from other substance use disorders by as much as 30%.
Upping the odds of recovery
Speaking to the NIH’s press office this week Wilson Compton, M.D., deputy director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommended that recovery programs adopt smoking cessation as a standard element of their treatment protocols. He explained, “Although the health benefits of quitting smoking are well known, smoking cessation has not been seen as a high priority in drug addiction treatment programs…this finding bolsters support for including smoking cessation as part of addiction treatment.”
In this longitudinal cohort study, addiction researchers followed a representative sample of US adults with a substance used disorder for up to four years to see how treating their smoking addiction affected their use of other drugs. According to the researchers, people who transition from a smoker to a non-smoker find it easier to avoid other temptations in the year following and then going forward.
One thing leads to another?
Addiction counsellors and researchers have long noted the relationship between cigarette smoking and other addictions. Whether it’s a sign of a predisposition for addiction, or because, like alcohol or opioids, people perceive tobacco as a crutch to get through difficult life circumstances, substance abuse disorders and cigarette smoking often go hand in hand. Researchers from NIDA used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study to test their hypothesis that treating a smoking habit gives folk a better chance of staying away from other problematic habits.
The researchers chose 2652 adult participants from the PATH database who had a history of substance abuse disorder. Just under half were women. The average age was 39.4 with a racial/ethnic mix representative of the USA. The team collected data each year that described how well the participants were handling their addiction. They used a clinical survey tool, the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs – Short Screener SUD subscale, to measure how things were going. For each year, they categorized the participants as either going from high lifetime substance abuse disorder symptoms to zero past year symptoms (doing well in recovery), or starting off with high substance abuse disorder symptoms and still using during the year.
People who had kicked their tobacco habit in the previous year were more likely to be rated as having zero past year symptoms of substance use disorder in the following year. The researchers calculated the increase in probability that they would succeed in having zero symptoms as 30% year on year.
The link between smoking and substance abuse disorder
The study doesn’t tell us much about the whys and hows. Giving up smoking could indicate that a person is serious about beating their dependencies. Or perhaps smoking is part of the problematic routine that ends in using alcohol or drugs. Maybe their triumph in smoking cessation motivates them to work hard at staying away from the other substances. It’s clear that giving up cigarettes is a positive sign in a person’s fight against addiction.
Parks MJ, Blanco C., Creamer MR, et al. Cigarette Smoking During Recovery From Substance Use Disorders. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online August 13, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.1976
NIH researchers based in Maryland, USA say that people who quit smoking increased their odds of recovering from other substance use disorders by as much as 30%.
Upping the odds of recovery
Speaking to the NIH’s press office this week Wilson Compton, M.D., deputy director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommended that recovery programs adopt smoking cessation as a standard element of their treatment protocols. He explained, “Although the health benefits of quitting smoking are well known, smoking cessation has not been seen as a high priority in drug addiction treatment programs…this finding bolsters support for including smoking cessation as part of addiction treatment.”
In this longitudinal cohort study, addiction researchers followed a representative sample of US adults with a substance used disorder for up to four years to see how treating their smoking addiction affected their use of other drugs. According to the researchers, people who transition from a smoker to a non-smoker find it easier to avoid other temptations in the year following and then going forward.
One thing leads to another?
Addiction counsellors and researchers have long noted the relationship between cigarette smoking and other addictions. Whether it’s a sign of a predisposition for addiction, or because, like alcohol or opioids, people perceive tobacco as a crutch to get through difficult life circumstances, substance abuse disorders and cigarette smoking often go hand in hand. Researchers from NIDA used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study to test their hypothesis that treating a smoking habit gives folk a better chance of staying away from other problematic habits.
The researchers chose 2652 adult participants from the PATH database who had a history of substance abuse disorder. Just under half were women. The average age was 39.4 with a racial/ethnic mix representative of the USA. The team collected data each year that described how well the participants were handling their addiction. They used a clinical survey tool, the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs – Short Screener SUD subscale, to measure how things were going. For each year, they categorized the participants as either going from high lifetime substance abuse disorder symptoms to zero past year symptoms (doing well in recovery), or starting off with high substance abuse disorder symptoms and still using during the year.
People who had kicked their tobacco habit in the previous year were more likely to be rated as having zero past year symptoms of substance use disorder in the following year. The researchers calculated the increase in probability that they would succeed in having zero symptoms as 30% year on year.
The link between smoking and substance abuse disorder
The study doesn’t tell us much about the whys and hows. Giving up smoking could indicate that a person is serious about beating their dependencies. Or perhaps smoking is part of the problematic routine that ends in using alcohol or drugs. Maybe their triumph in smoking cessation motivates them to work hard at staying away from the other substances. It’s clear that giving up cigarettes is a positive sign in a person’s fight against addiction.
Parks MJ, Blanco C., Creamer MR, et al. Cigarette Smoking During Recovery From Substance Use Disorders. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online August 13, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.1976
