This is how long it takes for the brain to recover from alcohol addiction.
- 23.7% of the French population aged 18 to 75 exceed alcohol consumption benchmarks.
- It takes 7 months sober to repair brain damage from excess alcohol.
- The greater the alcohol consumption, the less the brain recovers.
A new study calculated the time it took for people suffering from alcoholism to regain a normal brain.
Alcoholism: the brain recovers after 7 months of abstinence
After 7 months of abstinence, the cortex thickness of study participants, who had suffered from alcohol use disorder for years, was statistically equivalent to that of members of the control group.
“There is very little information on how human brain structure recovers during long-term abstinence,” said study author Timothy C. Durazzo. “Our study is the first to demonstrate significant recovery of cortical thickness in multiple regions in people treated for alcoholism,” he continues.
To reach this conclusion, his team performed MRIs one week, one month and 7 months after the start of withdrawal on 88 alcoholic people. Two participants relapsed between the first and second intervals, and 43 relapsed after the second interval. Their results were compared to those of 45 control subjects who did not smoke and did not suffer from alcohol addiction.
The greater the alcohol consumption, the less the brain recovers
In 19 alcoholics, brain recovery was faster between one week and one month than between one month and 7 months.“Faster recovery of thickness in these critical functional regions during early abstinence may be linked to improved integrity of functions/skills necessary to maintain prolonged sobriety”analyze the researchers.
The researchers also observed that those who had consumed more alcohol in the year before the study showed a decrease in the recovery of cortex thickness in certain areas. The same goes for tobacco consumption.
49,000 French people die every year because of alcohol
Alcohol consumption represents a major public health issue in France, where it causes 49,000 deaths per year. The same is true in Europe, where it is responsible for more than 7% of illnesses and premature deaths.
According to data from the French Public Health Barometer, in 2020, 23.7% of the population aged 18 to 75 exceeded alcohol consumption benchmarks. These risky consumptions were more common among men (33.5% of them) than women (14.9%).
