Alcoholic Dementia: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Seeking professional help and committing to sobriety are the first steps to recovery and preventing further brain damage. Distinguishing alcohol-related dementia from other forms, such as Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia, is crucial for treatment. Treatment typically involves the use of thiamine supplements in oral or injected forms. They may also need to live in assisted living housing if their symptoms are severe.

Results of the Reviewed Studies

This excessive consumption puts a person at risk of various brain diseases, including AD, stroke, and heart disease. Alcohol-related dementia ultimately describes any dementia-type illness that is caused by alcohol use. Alcohol can have a toxic effect on the brain, affecting normal function. Thiamine is essential for brain health and a thiamine deficiency can lead to permanent brain damage. On the other hand, there is no rationale either, to recommend cutting down on alcohol consumption to reduce dementia risk if consumption is moderate (disregarding other risks of alcohol consumption). The hazard ratio for abstinence compared to consumption of 1–14 drinks per week for developing any kind of dementia was 1.47, after adjusting for confounders (extensive assessment of sociodemographic data and cardiovascular health data).

What Are the Effects of Alcoholic Dementia on the Brain?

Brain imaging, such as MRI or CT scans, assists in identifying physical changes in the marijuana addiction brain, such as shrinkage in areas like the hippocampus and cortex, which are common in alcohol-related brain damage. Diagnosing alcoholic dementia is difficult due to its similarities with other conditions, including alcohol use disorder and other forms of dementia. There are no specific tests designed solely for alcoholic dementia, so diagnosis relies on exclusion and a thorough review of the patient’s alcohol consumption history and cognitive decline patterns. Alcohol addiction leads to dementia by causing extensive damage to the brain through multiple mechanisms. Chronic alcohol use chops gray matter volume, which is brain tissue that processes information and controls memory, senses, and decision-making.

How is alcoholic dementia treated?

We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions. So skipping five days of drinks doesn’t mean you can safely have five drinks in one 24-hour period — it’s still only one. Family or friends may have certain thoughts or convictions about what is going on and why it’s going on.

You may also choose to share your diagnosis with supportive family and friends—you don’t have to navigate your condition alone. The age of onset of alcohol-related dementia varies, but it’s often seen in middle-aged adults around 40 to 50 years old. However, it can occur earlier or later depending on the amount of alcohol a person consumes. Remarkably, at the same time, they can seem to be in total possession of most of their https://ecosoberhouse.com/ faculties, able to reason well, draw correct deductions, make witty remarks, or play games that require mental skills, such as chess or cards. This makes alcohol-related dementia easy to hide for some people, and difficult to diagnose at times.

What Are the Benefits of Not Drinking Alcohol?

• Addiction Resource is an educational platform for sharing and disseminating information about addiction and substance abuse recovery centers.
• Experts noted that France, well known for wine consumption, has an average 0.4% rate of alcohol-related dementia.
• For those for whom it’s still appropriate to occasionally relax with a drink, a low-risk level is defined as one-half to one drink per day for women and one to one and a half drinks per day for men.
• The frontal lobes, responsible for decision-making and social behavior, are particularly vulnerable.

Dementia is a progressive memory loss that can range from mild, with minor effects on your ability to recall memory, to severe, affecting your ability to perform tasks like eating and dressing yourself. If the person is still addicted to alcohol, treatment for the addiction is the first step, and many forms of help are available. Drinking alcohol with Aricept (donepezil), a medication for certain types of dementia, can prevent it from working properly and increase the risk of side effects. Alcohol-related dementia and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome may develop due to regular excessive alcohol consumption over many years. Excessive alcohol use may put a person at risk of developing certain health problems relating to the brain. Older adults are at increased risk due to the cumulative effects of alcohol on an aging brain.

• We cannot guarantee payment or verification eligibility as conveyed by your health insurance provider will be accurate and complete.
• Wernicke-Korkasoff syndrome is caused by a thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency, though heavy alcohol use can be an underlying cause of this deficiency.
• A doctor may consider other causes of the symptoms if the person does not show any signs of improvement.
• Excessive alcohol use may put a person at risk of developing certain health problems relating to the brain.
• People with early-stage dementia may also find it more difficult to make complex decisions and express themselves.

Alcohol and Dementia: Can You Reverse Drinking’s Damage to Your Brain? Here’s an Expert Neurology Doctor’s Answer

In summary, neuropsychological profiles differ between people with healthy aging, does alcohol cause dementia AUD, WKS, Alzheimer’s disease, and other subtypes of dementias. Although AUD, WKS, and Alzheimer’s disease all affect memory processes, the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on mnemonic functions are greater than those observed in AUD and WKS. Quitting drinking will prevent additional loss of brain function and damage. Also, improving the patient’s diet can help; however, diet does not substitute for alcohol abstinence in preventing alcohol-related dementia from worsening.

A standard drink contains 14 grams, or 0.6 ounces (oz), of pure alcohol in the United States. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome typically presents with three main areas of symptoms. It can affect several areas of the brain, but it most commonly affects the mammillary bodies found on the hypothalamus. ARD is a progressive illness, which means its symptoms often happen in stages and continue to get worse—especially if left untreated. The most distinguishing symptom is confabulation (fabrication) where the person makes up detailed, believable stories about experiences or situations to cover gaps in memory.

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