J Korean Med Assoc.  2008 Jan;51(1):84-89.

Pharmacological Treatment in Alcohol-induced Cognitive Disorder

• Kim DJ
• Joe KH

Abstract

Alcohol-induced cognitive disorder is a very severe problem in problem alcohol drinker and alcohol itself seems to be one of the main causalities in the development of senile dementia. However, the spectrum of alcohol induced cognitive disorder is quite broad, for example, it covered from alcohol-induced persistent amnestic disorder to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and alcohol-induced persistent dementia. By that reason, broad spectrum of cognitive impairment by excessive alcohol drinking is regarded as alcohol related dementia. The pharmacological treatment is not well established yet in alcohol related dementia, except Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome which is definitely related to thiamine deficiency. Therefore we introduced that some reports about the clinical efficacies by rivastigmine or donepezil trial and recent outcomes of memantine trial by authors in this review.

Keyword

Alcohol-induced cognitive disorder; Alcohol related dementia; Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome; Thiamine; Memantine

MeSH Terms

Alcohol Drinking
Alzheimer Disease
Dementia
Indans
Korsakoff Syndrome
Memantine
Phenylcarbamates
Piperidines
Rivastigmine
Thiamine
Thiamine Deficiency
Indans
Memantine
Phenylcarbamates
Piperidines
Thiamine

Reference

1. Crews FT, Collins MA, Dlugos C, Littleton J, Wilkins L, Neafsey EJ, Pentney R, Snell LD, Tabakoff B, Zou J, Noronha A. Alcohol-induced neurodegeneration: when, where and why? Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004. 28:350–364.

2. Harper C, Matsumoto I. Ethanol and brain damage. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2005. 5:73–78.

3. Miller R, King MA, Heaton MB, Walker DW. The effects of chronic ethanol consumption on neurotrophins and their receptors in the rat hippocampus and basal forebrain. Brain Res. 2002. 950:137–147.

4. Thomas VS, Rockwood KJ. Alcohol abuse, cognitive impairment, and mortality among older people. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2001. 49:415–420.

5. Oslin D, Atkinson RM, Smith DM, Hendrie H. Alcohol related dementia proposed clinical criteria. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 1998. 13:203–212.

6. Kim KY, Ke V, Adkins LM. Donepezil for alcohol-related dementia: a case report. Pharmacotherapy. 2004. 24:419–421.