Drinking and smoking are the worst habits for your health. Now you can ditch both of them, thanks to the same drug. According to a new study published on Monday varenicline, also known as Chantix, a pill prescribed for those who want to quit smoking, may also reduce drinking addiction.

Varenicline works by targeting a pleasure center in the brain which means that is very possible that the drug may be good for quitting other types of addiction like gambling or painkillers.

The drug was developed by Pfizer Inc and has been sold in United States from August last year.

In order to study varenicline’s effects on drinking habits, Selena Bartlett, a neuroscientist at Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at University of California has led a study on rats, in which they provided the rodents with intermittent access to 40 proof alcohol for four months and by varying the access to the liquor supply the rats were made to crave it.

The researchers discovered that every time the rats have access to booze, they upped their intake. After months of this behavior and a total of 37 binge-drinking sessions, all the rats cut their drinking in half when given varenicline.

“The biggest thrill is that this drug, which has already proved safe for people trying to stop smoking, is now a potential drug to fight alcohol dependence,” said Bartlett.

"It's not going to be the panacea, but it's exciting for us because right now there are only three treatments available," she added. "We're hoping this will be the fourth."

The researchers intend to extend their study on human subjects, before the end of the year.

As for Pfizer, the New York company has yet to decide whether to seek broader FDA approval for the drug, a spokesman said, quoted by AP.
”Without having considerable more data on this it would be very difficult for us to say we might pursue it or not. It's almost a wait-and-see,” said Pfizer's Stephen Lederer.