Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

A Brain Injury Doctor Talks About Boston--And It's Not Good

Ford Vox, MD, works in and around Boston treating people with traumatic brain injuries, and his blog post over at The Atlantic is a stunner. Noting that The Daily Beast just named Boston the booziest city in America, he describes some of his injured patients. He estimates that alcohol is tied to about 75% of the brain injury cases he sees that are serious enough to land people in brain-rehab hospital. He makes a point of saying that many of these people showed no signs of alcohol-related problems until they had the booze-related accident, fall, or bar fight that changed their lives. So he says:

"So when I see some media outfit has named Boston America's Drunkest City, I think that sounds right. I see the aftermath every day."

Chilling. But is it worse in Boston/New England than elsewhere?

 

Depression and Alcohol Abuse: Chicken or Egg?

Do people with depression self-medicate with alcohol? Or does alcohol abuse cause depression? As reported at ScienceDaily, some scientists think that alcohol overuse may lead to depression. These investigators, based in New Zealand used data collected from more than 1,000 people born in 1977 and determined that people with drinking problems were nearly twice as likely as people who did not to have major depression. Using statistical modeling, they then tried to assess the nature of the relationship between the two disorders:

 "This analysis suggested that the best-fitting model was one in which there was a unidirectional association from alcohol abuse or dependence to major depression but no reverse effect from major depression to alcohol abuse or dependence," the authors write.

"The underlying mechanisms that give rise to such an association are unclear; however, it has been proposed that this link may arise from genetic processes in which the use of alcohol acts to trigger genetic markers that increase the risk of major depression," they continue. "In addition, further research suggests that alcohol's depressant characteristics may lead to periods of depressed affect among those with alcohol abuse or dependence."

...ScienceDaily

Why Do Recovering Alcoholics Drink So Much Coffee, Smoke So Many Cigarettes?

Researchers worked with local AA groups to get information on smoking and coffee drinking among their members. It's a given that people recovering from alcoholism tend to drink coffee and smoke heavily, but why? ScienceDaily discusses the issue today and reports on a study that will be published soon in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. A total of 289 people participating in open AA meetings in Nashville last summer provided the information. One interesting point is that more people drink coffee than smoke, although the rate of smoking is higher than in the general population. Here's a snippet from ScienceDaily's report (the Dr. Martin quote here is one of the researchers; Swift is a psychiatrist at Brown who commented on the study):

"...most individuals (88.5%) consumed coffee and approximately 33 percent drank more than four cups per day. The most common self-reported reasons were because of coffee's stimulatory effects: feeling better, better concentration, greater alertness. More than half of the respondents (56.9%) smoked cigarettes; of those, 78.7 percent smoked at least half a pack per day, and more than 60 percent were considered highly or very highly dependent. The most common self-reported reasons were because of smoking's reduction of "negative affect," which refers to depression, anxiety and irritability. "Many of these negative affective states are described by patients as contributors or triggers to relapse after periods of sobriety," said Martin.

"I think that it is important for alcohol researchers and clinicians to know that alcoholics, even those who do not use other illicit drugs, are not just addicted to alcohol, but use other psychotropic drugs like caffeine and nicotine," said Swift. "I found it interesting that coffee contains a lot of psychoactive substances, in addition to caffeine. A second important aspect is the finding that rates of smoking are much higher in alcoholics in recovery than in the general population. Smoking kills and is at least as harmful for alcoholics as is alcohol. Yet, AA tolerates or otherwise does not address smoking in its members."

I really disagree with Swift's last statement, which seems to suggest that smoking could be worse for you than being an alcoholic.Smoking is about the worst thing you can do to your health other than not wearing your seat belt, but...When you consider the human ripple effect of alcoholism, which is way worse than second-hand smoke, it's hard to put smoking and boozing in the same league.

Should You Drink with Your Kids?

This article in a recent issue of Time magazine raises some interesting issues and questions about kids, parents, and drinking. What messages do we send our kids about alcohol when we ban consumption outright till age 21? Or when we don't restrict drinking? When we let them drink at home? With us? What do addiction specialists say about the so-called social host laws? What do they do with their own kids? What effect does alcohol have on a teen brain? That answer is a surprise, but not in the way you might think. An eye-opener.

Seizure Drug Gabapentin Looks Promising for Alcoholism Treatment

Gabapentin (aka Neurontin) is already approved by the FDA for treating seizures.If the results of a rat study hold up in humans, the drug may be used some day to treat human alcoholics.

Rats can be turned into alcoholics, and scientists at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, California did that and then tried to dry them out. Rats given gabapentin consumed less alcohol and were less anxious during detox than rats that got a placebo instead of gabapentin. As explained at NatureNews:

"Gabapentin is structurally similar to a neurotransmitter called γ-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which can slow communication between neurons in the brain. Although the drug does not function in precisely the same way as GABA, it can prevent the chaotic electrical activity in the brain that triggers a seizure.

Alcohol affects the GABA system by mimicking GABA's activity in the brain, which contributes to alcohol’s sedative effect. But chronic drinking can lead to tolerance: a condition in which more and more alcohol is required to produce the same GABA response. Without an increasing supply of alcohol, alcoholics can begin to feel agitated."

Stick to cheese, Bub.