J. Chirivella et al., NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL DEFICITS ASSOCIATED TO ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, Psicologia conductual, 4(3), 1996, pp. 377-392
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.