Background-The cause of dementia in subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) is controversial.

Background-Most studies of the impact of alcohol dependence on the brain have examined individuals in treatment. Such samples represent a small proportion of alcoholics in the general population. Such samples may embody a bias ('Berkson's fallacy') if the association between variables (for example, alcoholism and cortical gray matter loss) differs between the population of alcoholics in treatment and alcoholics in the general population. Our objective was to determine if treatment-naive alcoholics show structural brain changes versus controls, and to compare our findings with reports evaluating alcoholic samples drawn from treatment populations.