Posted on 08/29/2006 6:58:58 PM PDT by jdm
TUESDAY, Aug. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Alcoholics who can stay sober regain most, if not all, brain function despite years of heavy drinking, new research suggests.
"We've looked at long-term abstinence among middle-aged people who stopped drinking in middle age and found virtually full recovery," said study author George Fein, a senior scientist and president of Neurobehavioral Research Inc. (NRI), based in Corte Madera, Calif. and Honolulu.
The findings are reported in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
The work was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and conducted by Fein's team at NRI, a private research group focused on the effects of drugs and disease on the brain. Additional research was conducted at the Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif.
In the study, Fein's group tracked the neurological abilities of 48 middle-aged alcoholic men and women living in the San Francisco Bay area. All of the participants had been abstinent anywhere from six months to 13 years. While drinking, the male patients had consumed a minimum of 100 drinks per month while the women had consumed at least 80 drinks per month.
The researchers compared the cognitive ability of these ex-drinkers to that of 58 nonalcoholic men and women who either didn't drink at all or drank only in moderation. Each participant was assessed for memory, abstraction, attention, psychomotor abilities, reaction time, spatial processing, and verbal skills.
On nearly every measure of cognitive and mental ability, the abstinent alcoholic patients performed just as well as the nonalcoholic patients, the researchers report.
The abstinent alcoholics appeared to function normally and were deemed fully capable of engaging in a "normal" personal and professional life, the researchers said.
The one exception appeared to be spatial-processing abilities, where alcoholic patients performed slightly worse. Diminished spatial processing capacity would affect a person's ability to read a map, assemble things, and perform similar spatial-orientation tasks.
Spatial abilities aside, long-term abstinence appears to allow alcoholics to regain full recovery of mental and cognitive functioning, the researchers concluded.
Fein said more thorough research is needed to confirm these early findings, and additional study could assess other factors, such as the ability of abstinent alcoholics to recover motor function. Other studies might examine the level of recovery for older alcoholics, he said.
"However, people should definitely view these results as very encouraging," Fein said. "They suggest that if people stop drinking and stay stopped there is the possibility of close to full recovery of mental function. It doesn't guarantee full recovery. But this shows that it is possible."
Dr. Charles Goodstein, a psychoanalyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, agreed with Fein that the findings are encouraging.
"This research shows us what we would like to see, because in so many cases in the past we thought this kind of deteriorating neurological process might not be reversible," said Goodstein.
"However, I'm not sure how methodologically tight this study is," he cautioned. "The patients they looked at form a very heterogeneous group, and we don't know very much about how much drinking they did, how long they did it, how steadily they did it, or their condition prior to the onset of drinking. And it's not a very large group."
"The problem, of course, is that these kind of studies are very hard to pull off," noted Goodstein. "Alcoholic patients are not the most stable of figures, and they don't lend themselves so easily to long-term studies. But that is what is needed -- a full neurological evaluation of a large body of these types of patients. Until that is done, I'm not sure that all the data is in."
Is this considered "heavy drinking"?
uh oh.
I have an excellent source that tells me a well known Senator who's supposedly sober is no such thing, so that explains why he apparently isn't a good test case for this theory.
Their brains may heal but their cirrhotic livers become like rubber.
Good news, if true. I wonder if the same healing occurs in other body organs- the liver, kidneys, etc. after drinking is ceased.
Wow, it's incredible how God made our brains so magnificent. This ought to be good news for any recovering alcoholic.
So, how many years would it take for Keith Richards brain to heal?
Keith is a truly notorious drunk...surpassed only by his father.
Rumor has it that he drinks a quart of Vodka per day just to ward off the shakes. His favorite drink is the "nuclear waste"...tang and vodka in equal parts.
not the one I know...she's needs a kidney and a liver.
but her dad quit years ago and is fine. has been and is a...pharmacist
and yes...it's hereditary.
100 drinks per month equals about 3 per day. I'm guilty of that myself. :O)
Well, all those liberals who say President Bush's brain is warped from drinking better learn a new line hadn't they?
DANG! This nood Gews!
3 a day, heck yeah! In fact, pardon me while I go mix #4....
I feel all around better since I quit drinking but I'm still an idiot.
Uh...hate to be a party pooper..but what about our friend, THE LIVER????????
Two centuries I'm guessing.
Looks like drugs and alcohol really DO cause wrinkles.
June 27, 2006
Coffee's Liver BenefitsNew research points to coffee's ability to minimize the progression of liver disease, including cutting the risk of alcohol-related cirrhosis. This study concludes coffee has no such effect on cirrhosis caused by other means, such as Hepatitis C (although other studies have found some positive effect in the past). Find out more about how coffee can further your own efforts to support and protect your liver ....
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