Heavy drinking impacts abstinence

Heavy drinking can impact abstinence, research shows.

Heaving drinking can damage white matter pathways - neural pathways that connect distant areas of nervous system - across the entire brain which can interfere with cognitive and inhibitory control that, in turn, is important to achieve and maintain abstinence.

The team from VA Boston Healthcare System found that recovered alcoholics showed reductions in white matter pathways across the entire brain as compared to healthy light drinkers.

"This means that the pathways that allow the different parts of their brains to communicate efficiently and effectively are disrupted by alcoholism," said Catherine Brawn Fortier, a neuropsychologist and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

The findings show that the more you drink, the greater the damage to key structures of the brain.

"It appears that some of the areas of the brain that are most effected by alcohol are important for self-control and judgment - the very things needed to recover from misuse of alcohol," Fortier noticed.

Alcoholism leads to many brain-related changes and dysfunction that decreases one's ability to function and to heal.

The brain structures that are the most impacted by alcoholism are the ones that you need to control impulsive behaviour and stop drinking.

"The longer you misuse alcohol the greater your chances are of permanent damage. So if you or someone you know needs help to reduce drinking, do it now," advised Terence M. Keane, assistant dean for research at Boston University's school of medicine.

For the study, the team used high-resolution structural magnetic resonance (MR) scans to compare the brains of individuals with a history of alcoholism versus those of healthy light drinkers.

The abstinent alcoholics showed pronounced reductions in frontal and superior white matter tracts.

The study is set to be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.