- Alcohol's neurotoxic effects can cause brain injury.
- Alcohol-related brain injury may, in turn, place someone at greater risk of developing alcoholism.
- Exercising the brain's frontal cortex during treatment may help the recovery process.
- Thiamine supplements may also improve recovery of the brain and response to treatment.
In 1967, writer and educator Marshall McLuhan published "The Medium is the Message." It changed the way people thought about the impact of television, and the future of communication. Symposium findings from the June 2000 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Denver suggest that alcohol-induced brain injury may be the medium for the progression of alcoholism. The summary, published in the February issue of
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, may change the way researchers think about the influence of alcohol-related brain injury on how people develop addictions, respond to treatment, and ultimately recover.
"What these researchers are saying is that injury to the brain resulting from alcohol consumption is sum and parcel of the progression of the illness," said Peter R. Martin, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, and director of the Vanderbilt Addiction Center at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "It's a different perspective on how alcoholism may progress. In the past 20 years, the emphasis of research has been on what makes some people respond to alcohol, regardless of whether their brain is damaged. What they're saying here is that by drinking, you modify the brain, and the brain can be modified differentially in people. The neurotoxicity of alcohol 'feeds back' and determines, modulates, or modifies the course of the alcoholism."
Symposium proceedings included four studies that addressed both preclinical (before the onset of the disease) and clinical (related to the symptoms and course of a disease) findings. According to Fulton T. Crew
'"/>
Contact: Fulton T. Crews, Ph.D.
ftcrews@med.unc.edu
919-966-5678
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
13-Feb-2001
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