Alcohol Related Dementia - Symptoms
Alcohol related dementia is a form of dementia related to the excessive drinking of alcohol. This affects memory, learning and other mental functions. Korsakoff’s syndrome and Wernicke/Korsakoff syndrome are particular forms of alcohol related brain injury which may be associated with alcohol related dementia.People who drink too much alcohol do seem to be at risk of developing problems with their memory. Some have a specific problem of loss of short-term memory known as Korsakoff’s syndrome which develops because of vitamin B1 deficiency. Others develop a wider range of problems that resemble Alzheimer’s disease.
Alcohol-Related Dementia is a result of prolonged alcohol abuse. It is characterized by memory loss, self-neglect, loss of intellectual capacity and emotional instability and delusions. Korsakoff’s Disease is sometimes confused with alcohol-related dementia. Korsakoff’s disease produces a recent memory loss rather than a progressive memory decline and general intellectual performance is not affected.
Symptoms
The symptoms of alcohol dementia are essentially the same as the symptoms present in other types of dementia. There are very few qualitative differences between alcohol dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and is therefore difficult to distinguish between the two [2]. Some of these warning signs may include memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks, poor or impaired judgment and problems with language. However the biggest indicator is friends or family members reporting changes in personality [3].Due to the fact that theses warning signs are so similar it makes alcohol dementia difficult to diagnose.
The chronic use of certain drugs may also increase the risk of cognitive impairment and perhaps dementia in later life. This paper focuses on the long-term cognitive consequences of using alcohol, benzodiazepines, tobacco and cannabis. Currently available evidence indicates that mild to moderate alcohol consumption is not associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and may in fact have a protective effect against dementia, although heavy, long-term consumption is likely to have a negative impact on cognitive function. The degree that alcohol-related cognitive impairment must reach to be classified as dementia is currently obscure.
However, the different neurocognitive profiles of the patient subgroups suggest that ARD patients may also, in fact, demonstrate some degree of amnesia given that they perform slightly worse than subcortical patients on delayed verbal free recall and recognition. Nonetheless, the ARD patients did not display as severe impairment as the AD patients on the memory tasks.
