Evidence of vagal neuropathy in chronic alcoholics

Autonomic function was tested in healthy control subjects and 20 chronic alcoholic patients with varying degrees of alcohol-related peripheral and central neurological damage. The alcoholics were divided into two groups according to the severity of their symptoms and signs. The alcoholic subjects had no postural hypotension. However, heart-rate responses to Valsalva's manoeuvre, deep breathing, change in posture, baroreceptor stimulation, and atropine were lower in those alcoholics with a greater degree of peripheral and central nervous damage than in the less severely affected alcoholics and the controls. These results suggest that chronic vagal damage may be a feature of alcoholic polyneuropathy.