It can reduce the size of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory. Often, symptoms stop progressing and even improve after you stop drinking. But in some cases, your care team may prescribe medication like rivastigmine or memantine, which are typically used for managing Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Depending on your symptoms, you might also undergo a brain scan to rule out other concerns, like a stroke or tumor, or brain bleeding caused by physical trauma.

You don’t have to go through this alone—seeking help from healthcare providers, as well as support groups, can help you as you learn how to manage your alcohol use and how to cope with the effects of alcoholic dementia. Alcohol related dementia, as the name suggests, is a form of dementia related to the excessive drinking of alcohol. Korsakoff’s syndrome and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome are particular forms of alcohol related brain injury which may be related to alcohol related dementia. Consider a person who has never abused a prescription medication in their life, but they are prescribed opioids for a chronic pain condition. Overtime, their body adjusts to the opioids, and they begin to experience withdrawal symptoms as the medication wears off. This may increase anxiety and make it difficult to sleep, so drugs like Xanax, Ativan, or Ambien are prescribed.

Study findings

Variations may also be due to the differences in the socio-demography of study samples. Epidemiological studies have tried to relate patterns of alcohol consumption and dementia. A review indicated a high prevalence of alcohol abuse in dementia patients (9% to 22%) and 10% – 24% prevalence of dementia in alcohol abusers (16). The present diagnostic criteria for alcohol-related cognitive impairment focus only on alcohol amnesic syndrome and ARD (8). The two primary classification guidelines, the International Classification of Diseases, ICD-10 (9) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5 (10) also differ in description of ARD. Amnesic syndrome, according to ICD-10 (F10.6) is characterized by impairment of both recent and remote memory, with preservation of immediate recall.

However, the outlook is often guarded, and a person may never fully recover from the condition. Continued consumption of alcohol can cause symptoms to progress and get worse. This article reviews what alcohol-related dementia is, its possible causes, symptoms, treatment, and more.

The Link Between the Rise in Dementia and Substance Use

Alcohol-induced brain injury may be attributed to a direct neurotoxic effect of alcohol, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, apoptosis, disruption of neurogenesis and mitochondrial damage (42). It is proposed that repeated binge drinking and withdrawal facilitates neuronal injury by glutamate-induced excitotoxicity, mediated by upregulated N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. This leads to increased intracellular calcium, which mediates oxidative stress, along with loss of cholinergic muscarinic receptors. This alters seizure activity and may be related to alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Dose related damage has been observed in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and cerebellum in animal studies (43, 44).

However, there is a big difference between low-to-moderate drinking and people who drink in a way that is harmful – those who are binge-drinkers or alcohol-dependent. That is why UK guidelines advise men and women to drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or seven glasses of wine. Individuals with dementia diagnosis at baseline, those without follow-up after dementia assessment, and those with no alcohol use records were excluded. However, women who have ARBD tend to get it at a younger age than men, and after fewer years of alcohol misuse.

Support for alcohol-related dementia

Drinking more than 28 units per week can lead to a sharper decline in thinking skills as people get older. Excessive drinking over a period of years may lead to a condition commonly known as alcoholic dementia, or alcohol-related dementia (ARD). In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), it is referred to as alcohol-induced major neurocognitive https://ecosoberhouse.com/ disorder. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome occurs due to a deficiency in vitamin B1 or thiamine. This is a common deficiency in people who misuse alcohol, but it can also occur due to other disorders or conditions. To clarify things, people who get tipsy once a week by having a few beers or glasses of wine with friends are less prone to develop common alcohol dementia stages.

However, recent studies suggest that even moderate alcohol use can increase the likelihood of dementia. Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems. This disorder also involves having to drink more to get the same effect or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism.

What effects does alcohol have on mental health?

These can make it even harder for the person to stop drinking – and make it difficult for people close to them to help. A person with alcohol-related ‘dementia’ may also have problems with their memory. They might not be able to understand new information –  for example, they may quickly forget the details of a conversation.

Combining both into the same group makes the non-drinking group seem like they had a higher risk of dementia than if lifetime non-drinkers were considered separately. Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is a brain disorder which covers several different conditions including Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and alcohol-related dementia. Differing from other types of dementias, patients with ARD are unlikely to demonstrate language impairments (12, 24); however, intact confrontational naming has not been shown in all studies (15). Compared to Alzheimer’s dementia, the ARD group performed better on confrontational naming, category fluency, general knowledge (semantic tasks) and verbal memory (15, 51). However, moderate alcohol drinking was shown to reduce likelihood of verbal memory impairment in one study (52).