Alcohol and the brain
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Alcohol works on the brain to produce its desired effects, e.g., sociability and intoxication, and hence the brain is an important organ for exploring subsequent harms. These come in many different forms such as the consequences of damage during intoxication, e.g., from falls and fights, damage from withdrawal, damage from the toxicity of alcohol and its metabolites and altered brain structure and function with implications for behavioral processes such as craving and addiction. On top of that are peripheral factors that compound brain damage such as poor diet, vitamin deficiencies leading to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Prenatal alcohol exposure can also have a profound impact on brain development and lead to irremediable changes of fetal alcohol syndrome. This chapter briefly reviews aspects of these with a particular focus on recent brain imaging results. Cardiovascular effects of alcohol that lead to brain pathology are not covered as they are dealt with elsewhere in the volume.
Date Issued
2021-11-01
Date Acceptance
2021-11-02
Citation
Nutrients, 2021, 13 (11)
ISSN
2072-6643
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Nutrients
Volume
13
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34836193
PII: nu13113938
Subjects
ACTIVATED MICROGLIA
addiction
alcohol
alcoholism
brain
DOPAMINE TRANSMISSION
GABA-BENZODIAZEPINE RECEPTOR
GRAY-MATTER
IN-VIVO
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
MIDDLE-AGED MEN
Nutrition & Dietetics
POSITRON-EMISSION-TOMOGRAPHY
Science & Technology
SEROTONIN TRANSPORTER
USE DISORDERS
WHITE-MATTER
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
3938
Date Publish Online
2021-11-04