The reversibility of alcoholic brain damage is not due to rehydration: a CT study

Alcoholic brain damage is reversible when the patients are continually abstinent. An increase of brain water content was the putative explanation for this phenomenon. We tested the rehydration hypothesis using CT density measurements in 29 alcohol-dependent male inpatients. During a 5-week period of controlled abstinence, CT density measures did not decrease in any of the investigated regions of the brain as one would expect with an increase in brain water. Although the volumetry of the ventricular system and the subarachnoidal spaces revealed a significant reduction of CSF volume, we found a slight increase in CT density measures. Thus, our results are in contradiction to the rehydration hypothesis. Under discussion is whether neuronal plasticity might be the explanation of the reversibility of alcoholic brain damage in abstinent patients.