title: Alcohol withdrawal syndrome--an auto-immune disease? A neuroimmunologic model for pathogenesis of alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
abstract: A neuroimmunologic model of alcohol withdrawal symptoms is developed according to which these may be considered as an idiopathic auto-immune disease. During the alcohol abuse period of non-addicts, homeostasis may alter pathologically by gradual adaptation of the organism: auto-sensitisation develops and finally leads to the breakdown of auto-immune tolerance of the structural modifications set by alcohol withdrawal. The immunosystem regards the existing assimilation of alcohol as self, the withdrawal of alcohol as non-self. Alcohol withdrawal may be considered as an acknowledged physical stressor, and physical stressors as potential triggers of auto-immune diseases. Some so-called alcohol-induced diseases may originate in the pathogenic effects of preceding auto-immune responses to repeated alcohol withdrawals. Neuroimmunologic preconditions of potential auto-immune diseases exactly fit the alcohol withdrawal situation. Neuroimmunologic diseases themselves show close analogies respectively to alcohol withdrawal symptoms as well as to some alcohol-induced diseases. The myelin basis protein is assumed to be a potential auto-allergen. Finally withdrawal symptoms being the expression of physical dependence on alcohol, the model may highlight the very nature of physical dependence.
authors.affiliation: Zentralklinik fuer Psychiatrie und Neurologie Wilhelm Griesinger, Berlin, GDR.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schubert
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D015213:Neuroimmunomodulation / Q000502:physiology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000276:immunology; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol