scholarly journals Alcohol and cognitive impairment

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 304-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer Jauhar ◽  
E. Jane Marshall ◽  
Iain D. Smith

SummaryThe relationship between alcohol use and cognitive impairment has been notoriously difficult to disentangle. We present what is known about cognitive impairment associated with alcohol use/misuse, covering the spectrum from mild and subtle cognitive change through to severe alcohol-related brain damage, including Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. We highlight aids to the diagnosis and management of these conditions, and emphasise the benefits of prompt treatment on outcome. We also review progress in understanding their neurobiology. Suggestions for possible service configuration based on both our clinical practice and national guidelines are given.Learning Objectives•Gain an understanding of the spectrum of clinical presentations found in alcohol-related brain damage.•Understand that the aetiology of these conditions is complex and not solely due to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol.•Be better able to plan for the rehabilitation of individuals with established alcohol-related brain damage in your local service area.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Corallo ◽  
Dominique Tarda ◽  
Valentina Coppola ◽  
Lilla Bonanno ◽  
Viviana Lo Buono ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
Charlie Place

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is a neglected problem. ARBD is a term that has begun to be used over the past decade to describe prolonged cognitive impairment caused by alcohol use, including Wernicke's encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome, alcohol dementia and alcohol-related brain injury. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an overview of ARBD describing the research around its prevalence and prognosis. There is a consensus in the literature that there is little research and a lack of awareness of this condition. The author uses case studies from his own experience working with people with ARBD to describe the difficulties in accessing appropriate assessment and care for this group, and suggests that they are often excluded in a way that is familiar from the experience of the person with “dual diagnosis”. Findings – Recommendations are made including raising awareness, improving screening for cognitive impairment and developing specialist services. Originality/value – ARBD appears to have been neglected in the “dual diagnosis” world and this paper attempts to address this, and so should be of interest to a wide range of professionals working with substance use, mental health, homelessness and social work.


Circulation ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 130 (suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro Komori ◽  
Kazuo Eguchi ◽  
Toshinobu Saito ◽  
Yoshioki Nishimura ◽  
Satoshi Hoshide ◽  
...  

Introduction: The riser pattern, an abnormal blood pressure (BP) pattern in which sleep BP exceeds awake BP, is a predictor of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Although the riser pattern is associated with various factors, its significance in heart failure (HF) patients has not been established. HF patients often suffer from cognitive impairment (CI), but the relationship between the riser pattern and CI is not clearly understood. Hypothesis: We tested the hypothesis that the riser pattern is associated with mild CI, a form of brain damage that could develop to dementia. Methods: We performed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), ambulatory BP monitoring, echocardiography, and blood tests in 444 HF patients just before they left the hospital. Mild CI, a measure of cognitive function, was defined as a score <26. Results: The mean age of the patients was 68±13 years; 61.5% were male; and 22.5% exhibited a riser pattern. The MMSE score was significantly lower in the Riser group than in the Non-riser group (23±5 vs 25±5, p<0.01). In multivariable logistic regression analysis, a riser pattern was significantly associated with mild CI (odds ratio 2.07, 95% confidence intervals 1.19-3.61, p<0.01) after adjusting for significant covariates. Conclusions: A riser pattern was associated with mild CI in HF patients. An abnormal circadian BP rhythm in HF patients is clinically significant as a potential indicator of subclinical brain damage.


Author(s):  
Jesse S Passler ◽  
Richard E Kennedy ◽  
Michael Crowe ◽  
Olivio J Clay ◽  
Virginia J Howard ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between longitudinally assessed cognitive functioning and self-reported dementia status using the Ascertain Dementia 8-item questionnaire (AD8) in a national population-based sample. Methods The analysis included 14,453 participants from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study. A validated cutoff of ≥2 symptoms endorsed on the AD8 (administered 10 years after enrollment) represented positive AD8 status. Incident cognitive impairment was defined as change from intact to impaired status in the Six-Item Screener score, and cognitive decline was defined by trajectories of Letter “F” Fluency from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Animal Fluency, Word List Learning, and Word List Delayed recall, all from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease battery. Logistic regression models controlled for demographics, health variables, and depressive symptoms. Results Sensitivity and specificity of the AD8 to detect incident cognitive impairment were 45.2% and 78.4%, respectively. Incident cognitive impairment and a one-word decline in WLL increased the odds of self-reported positive AD8 by 96% (95% CI: 1.68–2.28) and 27% (95% CI: 1.17–1.37), respectively. There was a strong association between high depression risk and self-reported positive AD8 in sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Incident cognitive impairment and high depression risk were the strongest predictors of self-reported positive AD8 in this population-based sample. Our results inform the utility of the AD8 as a self-report measure in a large, national sample that avoids selection biases inherent in clinic-based studies. The AD8 is screening measure and should not be used to diagnose dementia clinically.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Seddon ◽  
Sarah Wadd ◽  
Lawrie Elliott ◽  
Iolo Madoc-Jones

Purpose No studies have evaluated the relationship between cognitive impairment and alcohol treatment outcomes amongst older drinkers. This study aims to explore the extent of cognitive impairment amongst older adults seeking alcohol treatment and examine the relationship between cognitive impairment, treatment retention and alcohol use following treatment. Design/methodology/approach The study used data from the Drink Wise Age Well programme; an alcohol intervention service for older adults (aged 50+). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment was used to screen for cognitive impairment; alcohol use was assessed using the alcohol use disorders identification test. Findings In total, 531 participants completed the assessment at treatment entry. Over half the sample were male (57%), with a mean age of 60 years (Standard deviation: 7.09). Almost half (48.4%) had cognitive impairment at the entry to treatment: 51.6% had a normal cognitive function, 41.4% had mild cognitive impairment, 5.8% had moderate cognitive impairment and 1.1% had severe cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment was not associated with increased treatment drop-out and was not predictive of alcohol use following treatment. Alcohol treatment was associated with a significant improvement in cognitive functioning. Originality/value This study suggests there may be a significant amount of unidentified cognitive impairment amongst older adults attending alcohol treatment. Assessment and routine screening for cognitive impairment in drug and alcohol services may help in care planning and setting treatment goals; in the absence of routine screening opportunities for treatment planning and intervention may be missed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-46
Author(s):  
Istatillo Shodjalilov ◽  
◽  
Saoda Igamova ◽  
Aziza Djurabekova

The incidence of cognitive impairment in TBI is high, depending on the severity. At the same time, psychopathological symptoms in the form of asthenia, increased anxiety and depression are encountered among patients with TBI. The work studied the relationship between cognitive and psychopathological symptoms in patients with TBI using neuropsychological testing on scales.


Author(s):  
Karla Liliana Pérez-Sosa ◽  
Edgar Felipe Lares-Bayona

Alcohol is a toxic substance associated with acute and chronic disorders affecting the Central Nervous System and significantly altering brain function. Objective: To determine the relationship between cognitive impairment and alcohol consumption in university students of the Juárez University of the State of Durango. Methodology: It is a cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative, non-probabilistic study, for convenience. A database was designed on the results obtained in a clinical interview on alcohol consumption and the application of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test. Contribution: The evaluation of cognitive functions show similar results, the male sex presented a better score in Attention and the female one in Orientation. More involvement was identified in the Deferred Memory functions in both groups. In relation to alcohol consumption, the cognitive functions evaluated show lower levels. The female gender was more evident cognitive impairment in relation to alcohol consumption being statistically significant (p <0.025). Alcohol consumption is a risky behavior that deserves to be recognized by the main actors about neurocognitive effects. Alcohol consumption prevention programs and cognitive diagnostic tools are appropriate strategies to reduce risk behaviors in mental health.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 429-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishant Verma ◽  
S. Natasha Beretvas ◽  
Belen Pascual ◽  
Joseph C. Masdeu ◽  
Mia K. Markey ◽  
...  

Background: Combining optimized cognitive (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale- Cognitive subscale, ADAS-Cog) and atrophy markers of Alzheimer's disease for tracking progression in clinical trials may provide greater sensitivity than currently used methods, which have yielded negative results in multiple recent trials. Furthermore, it is critical to clarify the relationship among the subcomponents yielded by cognitive and imaging testing, to address the symptomatic and anatomical variability of Alzheimer's disease. Method: Using latent variable analysis, we thoroughly investigated the relationship between cognitive impairment, as assessed on the ADAS-Cog, and cerebral atrophy. A biomarker was developed for Alzheimer's clinical trials that combines cognitive and atrophy markers. Results: Atrophy within specific brain regions was found to be closely related with impairment in cognitive domains of memory, language, and praxis. The proposed biomarker showed significantly better sensitivity in tracking progression of cognitive impairment than the ADAS-Cog in simulated trials and a real world problem. The biomarker also improved the selection of MCI patients (78.8±4.9% specificity at 80% sensitivity) that will evolve to Alzheimer's disease for clinical trials. Conclusion: The proposed biomarker provides a boost to the efficacy of clinical trials focused in the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage by significantly improving the sensitivity to detect treatment effects and improving the selection of MCI patients that will evolve to Alzheimer’s disease.


Author(s):  
Armin Schnider

What diseases cause confabulations and which are the brain areas whose damage is responsible? This chapter reviews the causes, both historic and present, of confabulations and deduces the anatomo-clinical relationships for the four forms of confabulation in the following disorders: alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome, traumatic brain injury, rupture of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm, posterior circulation stroke, herpes and limbic encephalitis, hypoxic brain damage, degenerative dementia, tumours, schizophrenia, and syphilis. Overall, clinically relevant confabulation is rare. Some aetiologies have become more important over time, others have virtually disappeared. While confabulations seem to be more frequent after anterior brain damage, only one form has a distinct anatomical basis.


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