NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL DEFICITS ASSOCIATED TO ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

The Central Nervous System is very sensitive to the toxic effects of e thanol and chronic abuse can lead to disturbances of memory, language, executive functions and orientation. Nevertheless, general intelligen ce is usually preserved. Primary Alcoholic Dementia is a controversial term because no there is no evidence about the relation cause-effect between alcohol consumption and these disturbances. These consequences could be explained pointing to alimentary deficits leading to nutriti ve-carential diseases such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and others l ike Central Pontine Myelinolisis, Marchiafaba-Bignami, Alcoholic Cereb ellous Atrophy and Fetal Alcoholic Sindrome. In these syndromes it has been registered Important cortico-subcortical disturbances has been r egistered in these syndromes, appart from a special glucose metabolism and a decrease in cerebral blood flow associated with alcohol comsump tion. In our work, the effects of acute and chronic alcohol consumptio n from a multidisciplinary point of view (neuropsychological, neuropat hological, neurophysiological and neuroimage recent data) is reviewed.