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Article: How to help when smoking, alcohol complicate PTSD
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- January 26, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (Hide copyright information)
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Reaching for a cigarette to cope with a flashback is all too common among sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder. The nicotine hit may feel good but scientists say its brain action probably makes their PTSD worse in the long run.
Here's the rub: At least half of PTSD sufferers smoke, and others wind up dependent on alcohol, anti-anxiety pills, sometimes even illegal drugs. Yet too few clinics treat both PTSD and addictions at the same time, despite evidence they should.
Now studies are recruiting PTSD patients _ from New England drug-treatment centers to veterans clinics in North Carolina and Washington _ to determine what combination care works.
"It's kind ...