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According to one study, alcohol-induced brain damage continues for a few weeks after stopping alcohol consumption.
Although the damaging effects of alcohol on the brain are widely known, the observed structural changes are highly heterogeneous, said researchers at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.
Diagnostic markers are lacking to characterize alcohol-induced brain damage, particularly at the beginning of abstinence, a critical period due to the high rate of relapses that it presents.
At present, researchers have detected, by magnetic resonance, how brain damage continues during the first weeks of abstinence, although alcohol consumption ceases.
The research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, revealed that six weeks after quitting, there were still changes in the white matter of the brain.
"Until now, no one could believe that in the absence of alcohol, brain lesions would progress," said Santiago Canals, of the Institute of Neuroscience. ;Spain.
Ninety-two patients, aged 46 on average and hospitalized for alcohol-related disorders, participated in this study.
To compare the brain magnetic resonances of these patients, a control group without alcohol problems was used, consisting of 36 men aged 41 years on average.
"An important aspect of the work is that the group of patients participating in our research is hospitalized in a detoxification program and that their consumption of addictive substances is controlled, which guarantees that they do not drink alcohol.
"Therefore, the phase of abstinence can be followed closely," said Canals.
Another differential feature of this study is that it was performed in parallel in a rat model favoring alcohol, which makes it possible to monitor the transition from normal dependence to alcohol dependence in the brain, a process impossible to observe in the man, Silvia de Santis, first author.
The damage observed during the abstinence period mainly affects the right hemisphere and the frontal region of the brain, and rejects the conventional idea that microstructure changes begin to return to normal just after cessation of consumption. alcohol.
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