The effects of excessive alcohol consumption can last much longer than we thought. In people who have been binge drinking for a long time, the neurological effects would last even after weaning.
Most of us are familiar with the immediate effects of alcohol consumption on the brain. To name a few: blurred vision, speech impediment, euphoria or depression, even memory loss and general confusion. However, for those who consume excessive amounts of alcohol over long periods of time, these repeated brain damage may have a lasting effect on neural and mental health.
Depression and anxiety are just a few of the conditions that scientists have linked to long-term alcohol consumption. Excessive alcohol consumption can also cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a condition that causes “amnesia, extreme confusion, and blurred vision.” Do these adverse effects disappear once the person stops drinking alcohol? Until now, researchers believed so, but new research calls this into question.
Effects last longer than expected
While previous alcohol research argued that stopping drinking halted cell degeneration, this new study suggests that alcohol-induced brain damage does not stop when alcohol consumption does. On the contrary, the harmful effects of alcohol can continue during abstinence. This research could be a game changer when it comes to care during withdrawal. These results were published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
To examine structural brain changes in people with alcohol use disorder, two groups of researchers collaborated: scientists from the CSIC-UMH Neuroscience Institute in Alicante, Spain, and researchers from the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. They used neuroimaging techniques to examine 90 people aged on average 46 years and having had to be hospitalized because of their addiction.
As a control group, the researchers recruited 36 men with an average age of 41 and no alcohol use disorder. “An important aspect of our work is that the group of patients participating in this research are hospitalized in a drug rehabilitation program. Their consumption of addictive substances is therefore controlled, which ensures that they do not drink alcohol. Therefore, the abstinence phase can be closely monitored,” says Dr. Santiago Canals, co-author and coordinator of the study.
What are the long term effects of alcohol on the brain?
The research revealed damage in the right hemisphere and the frontal region of the brain. Changes in the structure of white matter persisted for six weeks after the participants had stopped drinking. The white matter of the brain contains cells, axons and myelin, essential components allowing a “rapid and efficient exchange of information” between neurons located in different areas of the brain.
“There is a generalized change in the white matter, that is, in all the fibers that communicate with different parts of the brain. The alterations are more intense in the corpus callosum and the fimbria. The corpus callosum (or corpus callosum) is related to the communication between the two hemispheres,” explains Dr. Canals. “The fimbria contains the nerve fibers that allow communication between the hippocampus, a fundamental structure for the formation of memories, the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex.”
To summarize, the nucleus accumbens is a vital part of the brain’s reward system, while the prefrontal cortex is involved in thought process and complex planning, executive function, decision making, and social behavior. The conclusions of this study challenge these beliefs wanting the brain damage to stop immediately with the cessation of alcohol consumption. This research will allow better support drink addicts in remission.
.