Impact of alcohol consumption in healthy adults: A magnetic resonance imaging investigation

Preti, Antonio; Muscio, Cristina; Boccardi, Marina; Lorenzi, Marco; Girolamo, Giovanni de; Frisoni, Giovanni B.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2014.06.005

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Methods of estimating the amount of consumed alcohol vary between studies. Commonly used methods include the number of drinks consumed per week 4 , 5 , often categorized into drinking groups 6 – 9 , 12 , and lifetime intake in kg 5 , 10 , 11 (Table 1 ). The AUDIT-C score measures the frequency and quantity of drinking as well as the frequency of heavy drinking occasions 23 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of participants over 65 years found either larger 6 or smaller 7 whole brain volumes associated with drinking. Studies of a wider age range have found decreased volumes 8 – 10 or no association 11 , 12 with consumption. The most recent study using the UK Biobank data found an association between brain ageing and daily or almost daily consumption of alcohol, but the association was not significant in lower levels of alcohol use 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Moderate alcohol use is associated with decreased brain volume in early middle age in both sexes

Immonen

Launes

Järvinen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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the aim was to examine cross-sectional association between moderate alcohol consumption and total brain volume in a cohort of participants in early middle-age, unconfounded by age-related neuronal change. 353 participants aged 39 to 45 years reported on their alcohol consumption using the AUDit-c measure. participants with alcohol abuse were excluded. Brain MRi was analyzed using a fully automated method. Brain volumes were adjusted by intracranial volume expressed as adjusted total brain volume (aTBV). AUDIT-C mean of 3.92 (SD 2.04) indicated moderate consumption. In a linear regression model, alcohol consumption was associated with smaller atBV (B = − 0.258, p < .001). When sex and current smoking status were added to the model, the association remained significant. Stratified by sex, the association was seen in both males (B = − 0.258, p = 0.003) and females (B = − 0.214, p = 0.011). Adjusted for current smoking, the association remained in males (B = − 0.268, p = 0.003), but not in females. When alcohol consumption increased, total brain volume decreased by 0.2% per one AUDIT-C unit already at 39-45 years of age. Moderate alcohol use is associated with neuronal changes in both males and females suggesting health risks that should not be overlooked. Alcohol abuse is harmful to the brain, but the effects of moderate consumption, and the earliest age when the harmful effects appear, are less known. Volume changes of small parts of the brain, e.g. hippocampus 1 and the ventricles 2,3 , have been associated with moderate consumption, but the relationship of alcohol consumption and total brain volume is contradictory. Methodological differences in imaging technology and in estimating alcohol consumption may make the results difficult to compare and interpret. In addition, most previous studies of global brain values have included participants in late middle-age or old age. However, the rate of age-related brain volume does not occur in a linear fashion, but the decrease accelerates towards old age making the effect of age difficult to control in statistical analysis. Studying younger participants and groups with less age heterogeneity would be helpful. We found ten studies 4-13 which used volumetry, voxel-based morphometry or brain age estimates for analyzing the association of large brain structures and alcohol consumption in moderate drinkers (Table 1). Two of these studies included middle-aged participants in their forties to sixties 4,5 , two mainly over 65-year-olds 6,7 , and six report on participants of a wide age range 8-13. Findings in the middle-aged were conflicting. Decreased 4 and increased 5 volume of white matter, and increased volume of gray matter and ventricular size were associated with moderate drinking in males, but no associations were found in females. Studies of participants over 65 years found either larger 6 or smaller 7 whole brain volumes associated with drinking. Studies of a wider age range have found decreased volumes 8-10 or no association 11,12 with consumption. The most recent stud...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Moderate alcohol use is associated with decreased brain volume in early middle age in both sexes

Immonen

Launes

Järvinen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Alcohol dependency is a complex disease, involving several brain areas (Preti et al, 2014 ) and a variety of chemical changes (Koob and Volkow, 2016 ). This makes therapeutic strategies for its treatment complex, and usually of limit success.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Sessions of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Reduced Craving and Relapses for Alcohol Use: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial in Alcohol Use Disorder

et al. 2018

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Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, has been studied as an adjunctive therapeutic agent for alcohol dependence. In a previous study, we showed that five consecutive sessions of tDCS applied bilaterally over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) reduced relapse to the use of alcohol in alcohol use disorder (AUD) outpatients. However, no changes on craving scores were observed. In the present study, we investigated if an extended number of sessions of the same intervention would reduce craving and relapses for alcohol use in AUD inpatients.Methods: Thus, a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, clinical trial with parallel arms was conducted (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02091284). AUD patients from two private and one public clinics for treatment of drug dependence were randomly allocated to two groups: real tDCS (5 × 7 cm2, 2 mA, for 20 min, cathodal over the left dlPFC, and anodal over the right dlPFC) and sham-tDCS. Real or sham-tDCS was applied once a day, every other day, in a total of 10 sessions. Craving was monitored by a 5-item obsessive compulsive drinking scale once a week (one time before, three times during and once after brain stimulation) over about 5 weeks.Results: Craving scores progressively decreased over five measurements in both groups but were significantly reduced only in the real tDCS group after treatment. Corrected Hedges' within-group (initial and final) effect sizes of craving scores were of 0.3 for the sham-tDCS and of 1.1 for the real tDCS group. Effect size was 3-fold larger in the real tDCS group. In addition, the between-group analysis on craving score difference was nearly significant, and the effect size was 0.58, in favor for a larger effect in the real tDCS group when compared to sham-tDCS. Furthermore, in a 3-months follow-up after intervention, 72.2% of sham-tDCS group relapsed to the alcohol use whereas 72.7% of tDCS group were abstinent.Conclusions: Multiple sessions of bilateral prefrontal tDCS were well tolerated with no significant adverse events. Thus, extended repetitive bilateral tDCS over the dlPFC is a promising adjunctive clinical tool that could be used to reduce alcohol craving and relapses and facilitate alcoholism cessation.

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“…Moreover, findings from Taki et al (2006) suggest a significant negative association between lifetime alcohol intake and gray matter volume reductions in the bilateral middle frontal gyri among non-alcohol dependent Japanese men. A recent study (8), however, found no significant relationship between lifetime alcohol consumption and gray matter volumes in a sample of 367 non-alcohol dependent individuals. Given these contrasting findings, it is uncertain whether quantity variables, such as lifetime alcohol intake or duration of alcohol use account for many of the gray matter volume reductions observed with continued alcohol use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Furthermore, some of the neuroimaging studies focusing on alcohol users have not mentioned whether the alcohol users also used nicotine (5, 6), did not examine the effects of nicotine use on brain structure (7), did not control for nicotine use in their analyses (10), assessed nicotine use with a dichotomous questionnaire (8), or simply mentioned the number of smokers in the study (11). This makes it difficult to ascertain whether the observed neural effects were attributable to either alcohol and/or nicotine use and further illustrates the necessity and utility of disentangling the neural effects of each substance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Severity of alcohol dependence is negatively related to hypothalamic and prefrontal cortical gray matter density in heavy drinking smokers

Bullock

Cservenka

Ray

2016

The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

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Background While research has examined brain structure in individuals who use alcohol or nicotine, heavy drinking smokers comprise a unique subpopulation of substance users for whom less is known about the relationship between alcohol or nicotine use and structural brain abnormalities. Objectives The present study examined gray matter morphometry in a sample of 39 heavy drinking smokers (24 males, 15 females) in relation to alcohol and nicotine dependence and quantity of use. Methods Traditional voxel-based morphometry techniques were employed for preprocessing of imaging data. One multiple regression analysis for alcohol and nicotine dependence severity and another for alcohol and nicotine quantity of use were conducted, while controlling for age, gender, and total intracranial volume (ICV). Results Alcohol dependence severity was significantly negatively associated with gray matter density in the hypothalamus (p < 0.001, uncorrected) and the right superior frontal gyrus (p < 0.001, uncorrected), while controlling for nicotine dependence severity, age, gender and ICV. There were no significant relationships observed with respect to nicotine dependence severity, quantity of alcohol use, or quantity of nicotine use variables and gray matter density. Conclusions These findings suggest that within heavy drinking smokers, alcohol dependence severity is significantly related to alterations in brain structure, while this effect is not seen for quantity of alcohol or nicotine use, or severity of nicotine dependence. The current findings help clarify the contribution of alcohol and nicotine effects on brain structure, which could aid in understanding their neurocognitive consequences in heavy drinking smokers.

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Impact of alcohol consumption in healthy adults: A magnetic resonance imaging investigation

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Moderate alcohol use is associated with decreased brain volume in early middle age in both sexes

Moderate alcohol use is associated with decreased brain volume in early middle age in both sexes

Multiple Sessions of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Reduced Craving and Relapses for Alcohol Use: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial in Alcohol Use Disorder

Severity of alcohol dependence is negatively related to hypothalamic and prefrontal cortical gray matter density in heavy drinking smokers

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