Evaluating the Impact of Alcohol Abstinence on the Cognitive Functioning of Adults Diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder

Research supports the relation between chronic alcohol use and progressive cognitive impairment but alcohol rehabilitation facilities mainly focus on psycho-social factors with limited emphasis on cognitive impairment and recovery. This study evaluated the impact of alcohol abstinence on cognitive functioning; specifically, visuospatial attention, working memory and abstract reasoning on two different occasions using the WAIS-IVSA battery. A pre-test–post-test design was used to assess patients diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Differences in cognitive functioning from phase 1 (3-4 days after admission) and phase 2 (14 days after phase 1) were measured. A paired samples t-test was conducted using SPSS version 27. A statistically significant increase in AUD patients’ visuospatial scores was found when comparing phase 1 and 2 (M=7.11, SD=2.07), t(8)=3.42, p=.009. No statistically significant differences were observed for working memory and abstract reasoning. We conclude that the findings can be used to guide, and improve the development of future intervention programs to emphasize the value of cognitive recovery.

A Magnetic Field Prevents Alcoholic Liver Disease by Reducing Oxidative Stress

The radical-pair recombination change will affect the generation of free radicals, which can be regulated by static magnetic fields (SMFs) in a SMF setting dependent way. It is well known that alcohol consumption leads to significantly increased free radical levels and health risks, which lacks effective treatment method besides alcohol abstinence. Here we compared different SMF settings and found that a downward SMF of ∼0.1 T with magnetic flux of ∼4.5×10−3 Wb could effectively alleviate alcohol-induced liver damage and lipid accumulation, and improve liver function. The inflammation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and oxidative stress were significantly reduced. EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) experiments also confirmed the reduced amount of free radical by SMF treatment. Moreover, the lifespan of heavy alcohol drinking mice was also significantly changed due to the SMF effects on liver cell ROS level, DNA synthesis and liver cell regeneration. Our study shows that moderate SMFs with specific parameters have great promises to be developed into a physical method to reduce alcohol-induced liver damage in the future.

Desire and Craving ratings vary significantly for healthy alcohol consumers: Differences in semantic interpretation?

Craving is a central concept in alcohol, and other substance, research. Beginning in 1955 the World Health Organization outlined a working definition of the term to be used in research and clinical settings. However, the semantic interpretation of craving as a concept is not widely agreed upon. Since the publication of this first craving definition, a handful of studies have been conducted to investigate differences in operational definitions of craving, and have demonstrated a lack of agreement between studies and across research subjects. With this background as evidence, our research group investigated, when left to their own semantic understanding of the terms, if regular alcohol consumers would rate craving for alcohol and desire for alcohol in similar ways using related descriptors. Thirty-nine healthy, non-binging regular alcohol consumers were studied across periods of their typical alcohol consumption and imposed alcohol abstinence, collecting ratings of desire and craving for alcohol approximately every two hours across the two experimental periods, and during neutral and alcohol related imagery viewing. Among these non-binging regular drinkers, ratings of desire and craving for alcohol are consistently different while drinking according to a persons typical routine or abstaining, throughout the day, and when viewing alcohol cue imagery.

Lower risk of stroke after alcohol abstinence in patients with incident atrial fibrillation: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Background In a recent study, alcohol abstinence reduced the atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence in patients with AF. However, the relationship between alcohol consumption and incident stroke in patients with AF per se remains unclear. Purpose To evaluate the association between alcohol consumption status (and its changes) after newly diagnosed AF and the risk of ischaemic stroke. Methods Using the Korean nationwide claims and health examination database, we included subjects who were newly diagnosed with AF between 2010 and 2016. Patients were categorized into three groups according to the status of alcohol consumption before and after AF diagnosis: non-drinkers; abstainers from alcohol after AF diagnosis; and current drinkers. The primary outcome was incident ischaemic stroke during follow-up. Results Among a total of 97,869 newly diagnosed AF patients, 51% were non-drinkers, 13% were abstainers, and 36% were current drinkers. After inverse probability of treatment weighting, baseline characteristics of three groups were well-balanced. Compared to current drinkers, abstainers and non-drinkers were associated with a lower risk of ischaemic stroke (hazard ratio [HR] 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77–0.96 for abstainers and HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.70–0.81 for non-drinkers, respectively). Amongst current drinkers, there was a dose-response relationship between the amount of alcohol consumption and the risk of ischaemic stroke. Conclusion Current alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke in patients with newly diagnosed AF, and alcohol abstinence after AF diagnosis could reduce the risk of ischaemic stroke. Lifestyle intervention, including attention to alcohol consumption, should be encouraged as a part of a comprehensive approach to AF management to improve clinical outcomes. FUNDunding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.