High ethanol concentrations can interfere with the ability of CYP2E1 to metabolize other substrates due to competition from the shared oxidation pathway leading to reduced drug clearance and elevated drug concentrations (Tanaka et al., 2000). The interaction of certain drugs with alcohol will lead to a long-lasting, enhanced drug effect, often leading to overdose. A similar relationship is thought to exist with nicotine. It has been shown that smokers have a more rapid ethanol clearance than non-smokers, suggesting a biological basis for the correlation of tobacco and alcohol consumption seen in alcoholics (Schoedel and Tyndale, 2003).
