Reversibility of alcohol-related brain damage: clinical and experimental observations

Chronic alcoholics who maintain abstinence often demonstrate remarkable improvement of neurological and mental dysfunction. This paper presents an overview of the clinical and laboratory work of our group. Reversible clinical manifestations include psychometric scores, ataxia, tremor, Parkinsonism, dyskinesia, cerebral atrophy, EEG parameters, and a CSF acidosis. Electrophysiological investigations showed that in the in vitro hippocampus of rats fed ethanol for several months there was evidence for diminished long-term potentiation, impaired neuronal inhibitory mechanisms (diminished inhibitory post-synaptic potentials and post-spike after hyperpolarisations), decreased neuronal specific membrane capacitance and increased specific membrane resistance. Golgi stains showed attenuation of hippocampal CA1 neuronal dendrites in rats fed ethanol for five months, which reverted to control size in rats permitted two months of alcohol withdrawal.