A Controlled Study of Cortical Gray Matter and Ventricular Changes in Alcoholic Men Over a 5-Year Interval

Abstract

IN VIVO NEUROIMAGING has shown that long-term consumers of large amounts of alcohol have increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces and reduced cortical brain volume affecting gray and white matter¹ compared with low alcohol consumers. Alcohol-related volume deficits are present in the frontal lobes,² anterior hippocampus,³ mammillary bodies and cerebellum,^4,5 and corpus callosum,⁶ particularly in older persons. Although alcohol consumption contributes to these group differences in brain structure, the progression of the disease must also be considered relative to normal aging changes. Studies comparing young and old groups of healthy people^7,8 or applying regression analysis to samples representing a continuum of ages^9-11 to estimate the rate of change over a given age span provide indirect evidence that the passage of time contributes to changes in brain structure.