Impact of alcohol and smoking cessation on the course of chronic pancreatitis

•In chronic pancreatitis, dramatically reducing or stopping alcohol abuse results in a lower rate of exocrine insufficiency, pseudocysts and acute pancreatitis episodes.•The drinking pattern, but not the absolute amount of alcohol correlates with the disease severity.•Nicotine also has an important impact on the progression of chronic pancreatitis. We were able to identify a threshold of 29 pack years for the development of chronic pancreatitis. However, smoking cessation only reduced the relapse frequency of acute pancreatitis episodes without affecting the disease severity.•Alcohol cessation consulting is essential in chronic pancreatitis.