Alcohol dementia and alcohol delirium in aged alcoholics

In the present study, 126 alcoholics aged 60 years or older were compared with 104 alcoholics aged 35-45 years. No dementia was found in the younger group, whereas 62.7% of the aged patients had dementia; the dementia being irreversible in 32.9% of such patients. Cases of so-called alcohol dementia excluding organic brain diseases accounted for 42.1%. The percentage of aged alcoholics having dementia increased with age, being far beyond the frequency of senile dementia in the general aged. Among various physical complications, hepatic injury and myocardiopathy were more frequent in the aged alcoholics than in general aged people, suggesting that hypertension, myocardiopathy and hepatic injury underlie the manifestation of dementia. There was no case of dementia attributable to the direct effect of alcohol distinctly exceeding the effects of various physical factors. Problem behaviors characteristic of the aged group included 'being soaked in drink' and being inebriated, showing no correlation with the presence or absence of dementia. There was no significant difference in frequency of delirium between the aged group and the younger group. However, in aged alcoholics delirium tended to continue for a longer period during abstinence and was more likely to occur even during non-abstinence. A similar trend was found in aged alcoholics with dementia compared with those without dementia.