DRINKING PATTERNS AND HEALTH-STATUS IN SMOKING AND NONSMOKING ALCOHOLICS

Alcoholics who smoked also reported that they drank more frequently an d consumed more alcohol on drinking occasions than alcoholics who did not smoke, a practice that resulted in a substantially greater lifetim e alcohol consumption in the smokers. Smoking alcoholics also consumed more cigarettes and reported more smoking-related physical symptoms t han social drinkers who smoked. The heart rates (HRs) of smoking and n onsmoking alcoholics were similar and both exceeded the HRs for the sm oking social drinkers by similar to 13 beats/min (bpm) in males and by similar to 7 bpm in females. Surprisingly, correlations between HR an d lifetime alcohol consumption were higher and slopes were steeper in controls than in alcoholics. HRs in a subset of the male alcoholics fe ll only similar to 3 bpm after 24 weeks of abstinence, but changed no further over an additional 24-week period. Taken together, the finding s suggest that HRs may have been higher in this group of alcoholics be fore the onset of alcohol abuse and that alcohol intake contributed on ly slightly to the high HR.