Alcohol-related Cognitive Impairment: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Excessive alcohol use is associated with a wide range of physical, psychological and social consequences, and is responsible for a significant proportion of the burden of disease globally. An area which has received increasing interest is alcohol-related brain damage, not just because of the cost to the individual and society through resource utilization, but also because of the potential for prevention and reversibility. This paper aims to review the current literature on this subject and seeks to explore issues around diagnosis and treatment of alcohol-related brain damage.

Deterioro cognitivo y dependencia alcohólica, implicaciones clínicas

“…Cognitive assessment is thought to be appropriate between 1 to 6 weeks after achieving abstinence from alcohol, although some authors recommend 60 days of abstinence first (Hayes et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, even in its mild forms ARBD may not only affect the treatment of alcoholic withdrawal but also the habits that affect patients' health; it is thus recommended that all patients with problems related to alcohol use are assessed only once they are abstinent, as previously indicated (Hayes et al, 2016).…”

“…It is also advisable to balance potassium and niacin levels (Sachdeva et al, 2016). Treatment with parenteral thiamin should be continued for 5 days, followed by oral supplementation of 300 mg per day for several weeks (Hayes et al, 2016).…”

“…In the clinic, a combination of brain damage caused by both dimensions is usually found (Moretti et al, 2017;Ridley et al, 2013;Zahr & Pfefferbaum, 2017) which seems to severely damage the white matter of the prefrontal cortex, the corpus callosum and the cerebellum, and produce neuronal damage in the prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, and cerebellum (Zahr & Pfefferbaum, 2017). Overall, patients diagnosed with KS present lesions and thus a more severe deterioration in comparison with those that only present damage associated with the direct neurotoxic effects of alcohol (Hayes, Demirkol, Ridley, Withall & Draper, 2016).…”

“…A higher level of educational attainment seems to exert a protective effect, which could reflect either a better premorbid cognitive level or a greater cognitive reserve achieved through intellectual activity, or both (Ridley et al, 2013). Since all brain structures suffer progressive deterioration with age, when assessing the damage produced by alcohol, age is a confounding factor that should be controlled for with reference values for each age group (Hayes et al, 2016).…”