JOINT INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND COFFEE ON BIOLOGICAL MARKERSOF HEAVY DRINKING IN ALCOHOLICS

Background: Recent reports suggest that gamma-glutamyl transferase (GG T) decreases with coffee intake. The aim of this study was to examine the joint influence of alcohol, tobacco, cotinine, coffee, and caffein e on biological markers of heavy drinking in an alcoholic population. Methods: Subjects were 160 alcohol-dependent inpatients. Biological as sessments, performed at admission, were plasma levels of GGT, apolipop rotein AI, aspartate aminotransferase, and mean corpuscular volume (MC V), and urine cotinine and caffeine indexes. Years of alcohol abuse an d of smoking, alcohol and coffee intake, and smoking rate were estimat ed in a semistructured interview, and Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnai re was completed by inpatients. Results: Coffee intake, bur not caffei ne, correlated negatively with biological markers of heavy drinking, a fter controlling for alcohol and tobacco intake. Years of smoking corr elated positively to MCV, after controlling for alcohol and coffee int ake. Conclusions: Concerning the effect of coffee the most likely hypo thesis is that noncaffeine coffee fractions have a protective effect o n liver cells. Concerning the effect of smoking, one can propose that the increase of MCV with smoking could be a consequence of carbon mono xide inhalation, lending to hypoxemia, or of folate deficiency. (C) 19 98 Society of Biological Psychiatry.