Participants in the present study were recruited from a Veterans Administration Medical Center to participate in a double-blind, placebo-controlled smoking cessation clinical trial of smokers with a recent history of alcohol dependence. All participants provided written informed consent, and the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Massachusetts Institutional Review Board and the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Administration Hospital. Participants were randomly assigned to bupropion or placebo for eight weeks. Participants began study medication (bupropion 150 mg SR-sustained release tablets or placebo) 1 week prior to their quit day. Active and placebo medications were identical in appearance. Participants were instructed to take one tablet per day for 3 days and then one 150-mg tablet twice per day for the remainder of the treatment phase of the study. They were instructed to quit smoking 1 week after they began study medication. In addition, all participants received the nicotine patch for 7 weeks starting on their quit day. They received the 21-mg patch for 4 weeks, the 14-mg patch for 2 weeks and the 7-mg patch for
