Integrated smoking cessation and binge drinking intervention for young adults: a pilot efficacy trial

Alcohol consumption is strongly associated with cigarette smoking in young adults. The primary aim of this investigation was to complete a pilot evaluation of the efficacy of an integrated intervention that targets both cigarette smoking and binge drinking on the cigarette smoking and binge behavior of young adults at 6-month follow-up. Participants were 95 young adult (M=24.3; SD=3.5 years) smokers (≥1 cigarettes per day) who binge drink (≥1 time per month) and who were randomly assigned to standard treatment (n=47) involving six individual treatment visits plus eight weeks of nicotine patch therapy or the identical smoking cessation treatment integrated with a binge drinking intervention (integrated intervention; n=48). Using an intent-to-treat analysis for tobacco abstinence, at both 3 month end of treatment and 6 month follow-up, more participants who received integrated intervention were biochemically confirmed abstinent from tobacco than those who received standard treatment at 3 months (19% vs. 9%, p=0.06) and 6 months (21% vs. 9%, p=0.05). At 6 months, participants who completed the study and who received integrated intervention consumed fewer drinks per month (p<0.05) and number of binge drinking episodes per month (p<0.05) than those who received standard treatment. Preliminary data supports that integrated intervention enhances smoking cessation and reduces binge drinking compared to standard treatment.