Alcoholic Dementia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

They state that men and women shouldn’t regularly drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week. People who drink as much as this should spread their drinking over three or more days, but also have alcohol-free days each week. Alongside genetic data and details about alcohol use, the scientists also collated information about blood pressure, body weight, height, history of heart disease, and smoking status. They also asked questions to estimate how regularly each participant was involved in social interactions. Although some studies have investigated alcohol and dementia more broadly, there are still substantial gaps in our understanding. For instance, in an earlier study, researchers calculated alcohol consumption as a daily average across each year.

A person can be diagnosed with alcohol-related ‘dementia’ if they have problems with memory, thinking or reasoning that severely affect their daily life, and are most likely to have been caused  by drinking too much alcohol. A person with alcohol-related ‘dementia’ may be unsteady on their feet and more likely to fall over – even when they are sober. This is because alcohol damages the part of the brain that controls balance, co-ordination and posture. Meaning 
These findings suggest that physicians caring for older adults need to carefully assess the full dimensions of drinking behavior and cognition when providing guidance to patients about their alcohol consumption.

Associated Data

Of the 350 results from the original search, a total of 28 systematic reviews, most of which were published after 2010 [11, 20, 22–47], met all inclusion criteria. Also, improving the patient’s diet can help; however, diet does not substitute for alcohol abstinence in preventing alcohol-related dementia from worsening. NICE Guidelines recommend that alcohol consumption be reduced as much as possible, particularly in mid-life, to minimize the risk of developing age-related conditions such as frailty and dementia. These reviews were the World Alzheimer’s Report 2014, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidance and the Lancet Commission 2018.

They might not be able to understand new information –  for example, they may quickly forget the details of a conversation. They may also not be able to recall knowledge and events, such as where they lived previously or places where they have been on holiday. The symptoms of alcohol-related ‘dementia’ can change a lot from person to person. If a person with the condition has a brain scan, it will often show that some areas of the brain have shrunk much more than others.

What is Alcohol-related ‘dementia’?

The doctor will also need to make sure that these symptoms don’t indicate another type of dementia, such as  Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia. As well as limiting alcohol consumption, existing evidence points to a number of other lifestyle changes that can help people maintain a healthy brain for longer. These include not smoking, eating a balanced diet, staying mentally and physically active and keeping blood pressure and cholesterol in check. The authors found that, among those without MCI, no amount of alcohol consumption increased dementia risk compared with those who drank less than one drink per week. When it comes to the bottom line as it relates to alcohol consumption and brain health, the data are rather solid on some fronts, and a bit less so on others.

Researchers need to be sure that they are defining alcohol-related dementia more accurately for these kinds of studies to be definitive. If not, it is highly likely that they are looking at other dementias with other risk factors, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. A recent study examined more than thirty-million Europeans to identify the largest factors determining whether an individual develops Alzheimer’s or dementia. The study found that alcohol was the largest non-genetic risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study looked at data collected from more than 365,000 participants around the world. They found that moderate drinkers, defined as no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women, were 23 percent less likely to show signs of serious memory problems or to develop Alzheimer’s disease when compared to non-drinkers.

Alcohol and dementia risk – what we know so far

In that study, moderate drinking was defined as between six and 21 units of alcohol per week. Conversely, other recent data suggest a lower risk for dementia in people consuming a few alcoholic beverages a day. This includes a 2022 study showing that in around 27,000 people, consuming up to 40 https://ecosoberhouse.com/ grams of alcohol (around 2.5 drinks) a day was linked to a lower risk for dementia versus abstinence in adults over age 60. A much larger study of almost 4 million people in Korea noted that mild to moderate alcohol consumption was linked to a lower risk for dementia compared to non-drinking.

Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is a brain disorder which covers several different conditions including Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and alcohol-related dementia. Despite some claims, drinking alcohol in moderation has not been shown to offer significant protection against developing dementia. So if you do not currently drink alcohol, you should not start as a way to reduce dementia risk. Over time, excessive alcohol consumption increases a person’s risk of AD by 300%. The study defined moderate drinking as consuming 1–13 standard drinks per week, equivalent to 10–130 grams (g) per week.

Alcohol-related dementia vs. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

Abstinence of up to one year is linked with improved attention, working memory, and problem-solving abilities. However, learning and short-term memory impairments may be more difficult to reverse even with abstinence. ARD is a progressive illness, which means its symptoms often happen in stages and continue link between alcohol and dementia to get worse—especially if left untreated. The most distinguishing symptom is confabulation (fabrication) where the person makes up detailed, believable stories about experiences or situations to cover gaps in memory. Thiamine works in the brain by helping brain cells produce energy from sugar.

• This also enables you or your loved one to answer alcohol-abuse screening questions more accurately during annual wellness visits.
• Drinking alcohol with Aricept (donepezil), a medication for certain types of dementia, can prevent it from working properly and increase the risk of side effects.
• In this way, physical illness unrelated to alcohol consumption could be a confounder for both abstinence and dementia.
• Once it progresses to Korsakoff syndrome, the damage to the brain and nervous system may be too severe to reverse.
• Current drinkers can happily continue with the knowledge that light to moderate drinking has been shown to have mental benefits.