Recovering alcoholics who quit smoking perform better on mental tests than those who continue to smoke, according to a study by San Francisco researchers.

WebMD reported June 25 that lead researcher Timothy Durazzo, Ph.D., of the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center and the University of San Francisco and colleagues studied a group of 25 recovering alcoholics ages 25-57, including 12 smokers.

They found that while all of the participants improved their mental-skills test scores while in recovery (tests were administered at one month and six months after admission), the nonsmokers performed the best. The researchers said that the study indicated that encouraging smokers to quit while in treatment could aid recovery.

The study was published in the July 2007 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.