Influence of Improved Drinking Habits on Brain Atrophy and Cognitive Performance in Alcoholic Patients: A 5‐Year Follow‐up Study

Abstract

In the period 1977-1979, a sample of consecutively admitted alcoholic in-patients was studied with CT scan of the brain and neuropsychological tests. A subsample of 52 patients met the following criteria: age less than 46 years, no history of severe head injury or focal signs of traumatic brain damage, and no history of liver disease, drug abuse, or long-lasting anticonvulsant therapy. However, 72% of the patients showed brain atrophy and 49% intellectual impairment as compared to 16% and 13%, respectively, in an age-matched sample of men from the general population. Five years later, after excluding patients with head trauma, serious alcoholic liver disease and drug abuse, 37 patients were reinvestigated. Sixteen patients were abstinent or had greatly improved drinking habits during the 5-year follow-up period and 21 were still drinking. Alcohol abstinence was found to be associated with a regress of cortical atrophy and central atrophy as assessed by the width of the 3rd ventricle. However, the recovery was not complete as compared with the prevalence of atrophy in the sample from the general population. Among the patients a significant improvement in one cognitive test and a trend to improvement in some other tests associated with improved drinking habits was observed. Regression of central atrophy as assessed by a decreased diameter of the 3rd ventricle was associated with improvement in the very same cognitive tests. The results suggest that both atrophy of the brain and cognitive ability can improve in alcoholics who give up drinking.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Early outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury, pre-injury alcohol abuse and intoxication at time of injury

“…Mild-to-moderate neuropsychological deficits have also been found in a large number of studies, with alcohol abusers performing significantly lower than non-drinkers on formal neuropsychological testing [8,10]. In addition, cognitive deficits have been reported in heavy social drinkers [11], while other studies have focused on the physical impact and on the neurological sequelae of alcohol abuse.…”

“…Numerous imaging studies have demonstrated changes in brain structure related to alcohol abuse [8,9]. Mild-to-moderate neuropsychological deficits have also been found in a large number of studies, with alcohol abusers performing significantly lower than non-drinkers on formal neuropsychological testing [8,10].…”

Neuroimaging in alcoholism: CT and MRI results and clinical correlates

“…Subsequent reports of larger samples from his (Carlen et al, 1984) and other laboratories (Artmann et al, 1981;Mann et al, 1991;Muuronen et al, 1989;Ron, 1983;Schroth et al, 1985) have confirmed reversibility of ventricular enlargement in a proportion of abstinent alcoholics over periods of months to years. Muuronen et al (1989) performed a 5-year follow-up of a sample of alcoholic patients initially scanned in 1977-79. Of the 37 patients retested, 16 were classified as abstinent and 21 were still drinking.…”

Improvement in Cognitive Functioning of Alcoholics Following Orthotopic Liver Transplantation

“…Although this possibility cannot be discounted a priori, it is noteworthy that alcoholics have been found to have deficient memory capacities even after 5 years of continuous sobriety. 15 These results should be interpreted cautiously because of the lack of extensive memory testing. The memory tests employed in this study do not comprehensively capture all aspects of memory function.…”