Drinking and the brain: current evidence.
There is no question, as accumulating evidence reveals, that alcohol in excess negatively affects the brain and neuropsychological functioning, both immediately and in the long-term. The important question for social drinkers, however, is whether moderate amounts of alcohol can have deleterious effects on the brain or performance in either the medium- or long-term. It has been proposed that there is a continuum of negative consequences with light drinkers at one end and chronic alcoholics at the other end. Three levels of study of this hypothesis are distinguished; behavioural, structural, and cellular. Research into effects at these three levels is reviewed both for alcoholics and for social drinkers. A further hypothesis relates to the possibility that cognitive functioning is impaired even after blood alcohol concentration has returned to zero. It is concluded that while neither the continuity hypothesis nor a 'hangover' hypothesis is supported by current evidence, considerably more research is needed.
Delin
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Australian Wine Research Institute, Glen Osmond.
Lee
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TH
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013997:Time Factors