Yet, the specific effects of alcohol on the brain and behavior are not fully understood by the average person. Alcohol has been demonstrated to interfere with brain communication pathways, affecting balance, memory, speech, and judgment, as highlighted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Alcohol’s impact is not limited to adults; when adolescents engage in heavy drinking, they interfere with critical brain development stages. Alcohol accelerates the decline of frontal cortical gray matter and slows the increase of white matter volume during adolescence, increasing the risk of developing Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in adulthood. AUD-related brain changes are partially reversible with sustained abstinence, highlighting the brain’s plasticity.
How to Prevent Permanent Brain Damage from Alcohol
In addition to alcohol itself as an agent to promote addiction, some individuals carry a genetic liability for addiction, possibly selective to alcoholism. As noted by Vanyukov and Tarter (Vanyukov & Tarter, 2000), Falconer (1965) introduced the concept of liability in the context of human genetics, indicating a likelihood rather than a determined fate. A discussion of the genetics and family history of alcoholism is beyond the scope of this review; rather, scholarly discourses are presented elsewhere (e.g., Bierut et al., 1998; Edenberg & Foroud, 2014; Schuckit, 1985b; Vanyukov & Tarter, 2000). Some people may be hesitant to seek treatment because they don’t want to abstain entirely.
- Today, we have the ability and the tools we need to stop that type of thinking, characterized by selfishness, fear, self-pity, resentment, and entitlement – into a more positive and proactive line of thought.
- As expected, more positive alcohol use expectancies and fewer motives to not drink predicted intent to initiate (Table 3).
- In contrast, alcoholics may abstain for periods of time without help but in most cases will inevitably return to their previous drinking patterns.
- Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression not involving changes to the underlying DNA sequence, has also been linked to alcoholism.
- By understanding the characteristics of alcoholic thinking, healthcare professionals can better assess and treat individuals with AUD.
Alcohol Use Disorder
Future exploration of temporal relationships between changes in alcohol-related cognitions and behavioral decision making will be useful in the refinement of effective prevention and intervention strategies. Heavy drinking can fuel changes in the brain—about half of people who meet the criteria for alcoholism show problems with thinking or memory, research suggests. The ability to plan ahead, learn and hold information antidepressants and alcohol interactions (like a phone number or shopping list), withhold responses as needed, and work with spatial information (such as using a map) can be affected. Brain structures can shift as well, particularly in the frontal lobes, which are key for planning, making decisions, and regulating emotions. But many people in recovery show improvements in memory and concentration, even within the first month of sobriety.
Preventive and Treatment Strategies for Alcoholism and Alcoholic Thinking
The deficit profile identifying compromised component processes of memory indicated where to look for neural substrates of compromise and led to Papez circuit and the limbic system. In addition, it was essential to define an appropriate diagnostic comparison to gauge the extent of the memory impairment in “uncomplicated” alcoholism. The comparison group comprised alcoholics complicated by KS, which is marked by dense anterograde amnesia, the result of Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) and thiamine deficiency. At the same time, the uncomplicated alcoholics served as a diagnostic comparison to the KS. Working within the context of classical neuropathological studies of alcoholics with KS, which is marked by lesions in the mammillary bodies and thalamus, we used in vivo MRI to ask what patterns of volume deficits define these two groups of alcoholics. These comparisons were the basis for testing whether the two alcoholic groups differed in deficit pattern or, alternatively, in deficit severity.
Am I An Alcoholic? 10 Warning Signs of Alcoholism
Improvements in visuospatial ability also noted in the abstainers could have contributed to spatial memory improvements (Figure 7). Critically, improvements in memory correlated with shrinkage of the third ventricle volume, suggesting a neural substrate for recovery (Rosenbloom, Pfefferbaum, & Sullivan, 2004; Sullivan, Rosenbloom, Lim, et al., 2000). Items from Monitoring the Future (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman & Schulenberg, 2009) and the Customary Drinking and Drug Use Record (Brown et al., 1998) were used to assess age of first alcohol use, lifetime (7-point scale, never to over 100 times) and past fentanyl addiction treatment and rehab center in colorado 30 days alcohol use (0-30). People who drank seven to 14 alcoholic drinks a week lowered their life expectancy by about six months, people who drank 14 to 24 drinks a week lowered their life expectancy by one to two years, and consuming more than 24 drinks a week lowered life expectancy by four to five years. Alcohol consumption was also linked to a greater risk for stroke, coronary disease, heart failure, and fatally high blood pressure. However, it’s difficult to discern if drinking was the primary problem, or whether lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise influenced health outcomes as well.
Neuropsychological tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, have been employed to measure the impact of alcohol on global cognitive function and specific cognitive domains. The findings indicate that while low to moderate alcohol consumption might have a protective effect on cognitive health in some individuals, excessive drinking poses a significant risk for cognitive impairments, including processing speed, memory, and executive function. This complex relationship underscores the importance of evaluating personal drinking habits in the context of their potential cognitive effects.
This reversal was first detected in vivo with computed tomography (Carlen, Wilkinson, Wortzman, & Holgate, 1984; Carlen, Wortzman, Holgate, Wilkinson, & Rankin, 1978). Serial MRIs of individual cases of recovery reveal brain structural improvement (Rosenbloom & Pfefferbaum, 2008), visible in the lateral ventricles (Figure 7). A striking example of recovery involved a 41-year-old alcoholic woman, scanned after 2 months drooling: causes and treatments of sobriety and then again 1 year later. In addition to ventricular shrinkage, she exhibited resolution of radiological evidence for central pontine myelinolysis, which if left untreated, can be fatal (Lampl & Yazdi, 2002; Sullivan & Pfefferbaum, 2001). Drinking and non-drinking expectancies, and motives for not drinking may play critical roles in decisions to alter alcohol-use behavior during adolescence.
If you try to abstain, but then obsess over alcohol or switch to another drug or behavior, that’s a red flag. Can you think of more than a few times when you came to work with a hangover, missed deadlines, or got behind on schoolwork because of your drinking? When your alcohol use, including being sick from drinking, often prevents you from keeping up with responsibilities at home, work, or school, it’s a problem. Your brain adapts to alcohol over time and can become less sensitive to its effects. Bryan was born in Philadelphia and remains an ardent supporter of Philadelphia sports. After attending FSU and FAU where he majored in writing, Bryan ventured out to follow in the footsteps of his idols, running straight into drug addiction.
On an individual level, strategies include providing personalized feedback about alcohol use, training in self-monitoring and moderation skills, and developing stress management and alcohol refusal skills. Cognitive-behavioral approaches teach individuals to confront or avoid situations that may lead to drinking. Moreover, monitoring alcohol content in beverages and choosing to drink in moderation or abstain are personal steps one can take to prevent alcohol misuse. Studies also highlight several intermediate phenotypes influenced by genetics, like the flushing response to alcohol, low response to alcohol, and personality traits such as impulsivity and sensation seeking.
