Ailments and Situations - Alcoholism - Causes and What to Expect

Causes:

There is no specific cause of alcoholism. However, there are contributing factors that can cause people to be prone to alcohol dependence. Personality, environment, and the addictive nature of alcohol all interact in the etiology of the disease. Some believe that genetic factors also play a role. Availability, affordability, and social acceptance are important environmental factors. Stress is another important factor. It can cause moderate drinkers to begin to drink heavily in order to deal with grief. Some women turn to drinking when adolescent children move away from home.

What to Expect:

Toxicity

Alcohol is highly toxic to the liver. Chronic consumption of high amounts of alcohol often lead to liver damage or disease, which include fatty liver, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. This toxicity is compounded by inadequate nutrition secondary to high alcohol consumption. If the liver is permanently damaged, inadequate glycogen storage and hypoglycemia can result. Hypoglycemia is also accentuated by inadequate food intake.

People who are alcohol-dependent are particularly susceptible to thiamin deficiencies. The direct toxic effects of alcohol and the nutritional deficiencies are both responsible for nerve degeneration and brain damage that can result. This often presents itself as impaired cognition, memory, learning, and problem solving to name a few.

Alcohol is also toxic to the heart muscle. This, along with the thiamin deficiency, can lead to cardiomyopathies and arrythmias. Alcohol abuse affects the secretion of hormones, impairs sexual functioning (in both men and women), and increases your susceptibility to infectious diseases. Other alcohol-related disorders include cancer, liver damage or disease (particularly cirrhosis), nervous system disorders (such as peripheral neuropathies and brain damage), heart and circulatory disorders, psychiatric illness, gastritis, pancreatitis, peptic ulcers, and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
 

 Withdrawal Syndrome

Withdrawal from alcohol is unpleasant, to say the very least. It begins 12 to 48 hours after you stop drinking. With a mild withdrawal syndrome you can experience tremors, weakness, sweating, hyper-reflexia and gastrointestinal symptoms. Some people have seizures called alcoholic epilepsy or rum fits. More severe cases of withdrawal can be fatal. Some people will experience alcoholic hallucinations. This often follows abrupt abstinence from alcohol after prolonged excessive use. It resembles schizophrenia. Symptoms include auditory illusions and hallucinations that are often accusatory or threatening in nature. It is transient, however, and recovery occurs within one to three weeks. Recurrence is likely if you begin drinking excessively again.

People undergoing withdrawal customarily experience alcoholic hallucinations. These hallucinations are auditory in nature and are often accusatory and threatening. It may be mistaken for schizophrenia, but it is transient. Recovery occurs within one to three weeks.

Delirium tremens is also generally experienced during withdrawal. It begins 48 to 72 hours after alcohol withdrawal. Symptoms include perspiration, increased pulse rate, anxiety attacks, confusion, increasing temperature, poor sleep, frightening dreams, and depression. The person is often disoriented, and may perform a previously habitual task during the delirium; that is they might imagine they are at work and begin to perform the task they would do if at work. They are sensitive to many sensory stimuli. The person experiences what are called vestibular disturbances; they feel like the floor is moving or that the walls are falling. As the delirium progresses, they may experience a resting tremor of the head and/or trunk and ataxia. This stage of withdrawal usually comes to a close within 12 to 24 hours, ending with a long sleep, but it can be fatal. Generally, a high temperature indicates an adverse outcome.
 

 Korsakoff's Syndrome

This is one of several complications of alcoholism. Memory of recent events is severely affected, such that confabulation ensues. Memory of distant events is not so severely affected. As a result, there is often a disorientation to time. There are also emotional changes that may leave you apathetic or emotionally unresponsive to events. There may be some improvement of the condition 1 to 2 years after onset. However, if there is irreversible brain damage due to a thiamine deficiency, improvement is unlikely.   

Wernicke's Disease

This complication is related to thiamine deficiency more so than Korsakoff's syndrome. It is characterized by confusion, staggering gait, drowsiness, loss of memory, the inability to focus the eyes, tremors, agitation, and hypothermia.
 

 Cerebellar Degeneration

This complication involves atrophy of certain parts of the brain, and its symptoms are ataxia of stance and gait.
 

 Marchiafava-Bignami Disease

This is a rare disease whereby the brain is severely affected. People become agitated and confused. Progressive dementia is common. Some people recover over several months while others can experience seizures, coma, and likely death.
 

 Pathologic Intoxication

This is a rare syndrome whereby the sufferer experiences extreme excitement, automatic movements, and irrational and aggressive behaviour after ingesting a small amount of alcohol. This could last minutes or hours. It is often followed by sleep. Once the person awakes, they do not remember the incident.