Alcoholic Brain Damage: Anticoagulant Therapy

Abstract

Anticoagulant (Dicumarol) therapy was given for five to six weeks to 15 hospital patients with organic brain damage secondary to alcoholism. The results were excellent in 5, good in 7 and poor in 3 cases; 8 of the patients could be discharged home.

Senile‐Presenile Dementia: Follow‐Up Data on an Effective Psychotherapy‐Anticoagulant Regimen*

“…It also explains why brain‐damaged patients with these two disorders often respond better to treatment than do other patients — there is more sludging for the anticoagulant to attack. This theory is supported by a study of 15 alcoholic brain‐damaged patients; 12 responded well after all other treatment methods had failed (7).…”

Alcohol and Reduced Cerebral Blood Flow

“…This possibility is further born out by the good results we have obtained in many cases of senility using anticoagulant therapy to reduce the sludging of blood 3,4 . The patients with brain damage from alcohol are more likely to improve than the usual senility patients, probably because most of their damage was due to the alcohol causing aggregation of the red blood cells 5…”