Persistent but Less Severe Ataxia in Long‐Term Versus Short‐Term Abstinent Alcoholic Men and Women: A Cross‐Sectional Analysis

Abstract

Background Disturbed gait and balance are among the most consistent and salient sequelae of chronic alcoholism. Results of small sample longitudinal investigations have provided evidence that partial recovery of gait and balance functions in alcoholics may be achieved with abstinence. However, abstinence durations reported have been limited, and their power and generalizability have suffered from small sample sizes. Methods In the present study we employed a cross-sectional approach to assess gait and balance functions in short-term (6 to 15 weeks) abstinent (STAA; n = 70) and long-term (minimum 18 months, mean = 7.38 years) abstinent (LTAA; n = 82) alcoholics. STAA and LTAA did not differ with respect to lifetime alcohol consumption, family drinking density, or years of education. In addition, we examined effects of gender and alcohol use variables. Results Our main findings were 1) persistent disturbed gait and balance in STAA, and disturbed standing balance in LTAA, 2) overall less impaired performance of LTAA compared to STAA on gait and balance measures, and 3) worse performance of STAA (but not LTAA) women, compared to men, on standing balance without visual control. Conclusions Our results suggest that alcoholics’ gait and balance can continue to recover with long abstinence from alcohol, but that deficits persist, especially in eyes-closed standing balance. In addition, our results are consistent with more severe alcohol-induced ataxia in women than in men but suggest that, with extended abstinence, women recover gait and balance function to a level comparable with men.

Postural Stability in Cigarette Smokers and During Abstinence from Alcohol

“…Whereas performance was inversely correlated with smoking duration in both smoking groups, it was not related to alcohol consumption across both ALC groups. This is contrary to findings in treatment naive heavy drinkers (Smith and Fein, 2011). While the proportion of nsALC able to perform the WFEC task did not increase between TP1 and TP3 (similar to the nsCON proportion), the proportion of sALC able to perform the task more than doubled by TP3.…”

Cognitive, emotion control, and motor performance of adolescents in the NCANDA study: Contributions from alcohol consumption, age, sex, ethnicity, and family history of addiction.

“…Prior studies examining the effects of acute alcohol on balance reported that nondependent adolescents who showed little sway in response to acute alcohol were more likely to develop alcohol dependence than youth who exhibited excessive sway (Schuckit, 1994), yet without alcohol challenge adolescents who carry familial risk of alcohol use disorder show greater postural sway than non-carriers (Hill, Steinhauer, Locke-Wellman, & Ulrich, 2009). Further, chronic alcohol dependence in adults can result in significant postural instability that remains detectable even in abstinent alcoholics, although sustained sobriety can result in at least partial resolution of imbalance (Smith & Fein, 2012; Sullivan, Rosenbloom, Lim, & Pfefferbaum, 2000). The predictive value of stability testing performance absent acute alcohol challenge awaits longitudinal study.…”

Effects of low-level alcohol use on cognitive interference: An fMRI study in young adults

“…In addition to the fusiform gyrus and parietal lobe differences in activation between groups in the present study, alcohol users also showed increased activation in structures typically affected by chronic alcohol use, particularly the cerebellum (Smith & Fein, 2011), thalamus (Harding, Halliday, Caine, & Kril, 2000), and prefrontal cortex (Abernathy, Chandler, & Woodward, 2010). Paul et al (2008) examined total cerebral brain volumes in a healthy community sample in low, moderate, and high drinkers in addition to abstainers and previous drinkers.…”