Alcohol abuse and dependence is one
of the most socially and economically expensive health problems in the world.
The United States is estimated to spend $184.6 billion on alcohol abuse per year.
Excessive drinking causes a plethora of brain-damaging effects and impairments
in cognitive function including neurological deficits, structural changes in
the brain, and other alcohol-related diseases.
Alcoholics are especially
prone to deficits such as, “abstract problem solving, visuo-spatial and verbal
learning, memory function, perceptual motor skills and even motor function.” The general pattern of such deficits have
classically been classified as “frontal.” The nodes of frontocerebellar
circuitry were studied via quatitative neuroimaging in order to determine
volume deficits seen in alcoholics. Such deficiencies in the brain imply,
“alcoholism-related neuropsychological deficits, either through abnormalities
in individual nodes or by disconnection and interruption of selective
circuitry.”
Neuroimaging
techniques have demonstrated the existence of structural and functional
abnormalities in alcoholics that are proven to be cognitively impaired. The
question of whether or not “moderate” consumers of alcohol are exposed to the
same risk has yet to be answered. Data analyzed from the Atherosclerotic Risk
in Communities study (ARIC) and suggests that alcohol consumption is directly
related to the size of the cerebrospinal fluid filled spaces of the brain. Another
neuropathological study that suggests an increase in the cerebrospinal fluid
filled spaces in moderate drinkers is supported by this analysis.
The degree
of brain atrophy is also directly related to the amount of alcohol consumed
over a lifetime. Changes in mylenation and axonal integrity as well as a down
regulation of myelin-associated genes may be to blame for the amount of white
matter lost due to excessive drinking and brain atrophy. Neuronal dendritic,
and synaptic changes in addition to receptor and transmitter changes may also
be to blame for functional changes and cognitive impairment seen in alcoholics.
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