“Binge-drinking” Causes Up to One in Four Dementia Cases 

By Stephen Adams, Telegraph.co.uk

May 10, 2009

United Kingdom 


A recent international survey found that Britain had the fifth worst teenage binge-drinking problem in Europe.

 Photo: REUTERS 

The worrying finding suggests that having a heavy alcohol intake could be far worse for mental health than previously thought.

Psychiatrists are also concerned that the country's drink problem could have serious mental health consequences in the future with heavy drinkers experiencing serious memory problems in their 40s.

The research, published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, concluded that between 10 and 24 per cent of all cases of dementia could be caused by alcohol-related brain damage.

Dr Jane Marshall, one of the authors of the report, and a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill, south London, said the findings should come as a wake-up call to those who thought that dementia was only a disease of old age.

She said: "People think that dementia is something that happens to people over 65. But a lot of those under 65 have got cognitive problems and a large proportion of the problems in that group are related to alcohol. 

"Alcohol-related brain damage may account for 10 to 24 per cent of all cases of all forms of dementia. We know that alcohol is associated with serious cognitive impairment. It reduces memory and general cognition."

She also warned that women were more likely to develop dementia as a result of heavy drinking than men, because "they metabolise alcohol differently and so are more vulnerable".

Such a finding is particularly worrying because there has been a rapid rise in the numbers of young women drinking heavily in recent years.

A recent international survey found that Britain had the fifth worst teenage binge-drinking problem in Europe, out of 35 nations.

Fifty-five per cent of girls admitted that they had consumed five or more alcoholic drinks at one time in the previous month compared with 52 per cent of boys, according to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

Alcohol is a toxin that directly damages brain tissues and kills cells. It can also cause high blood pressure, which damages the blood supply to the brain, starving the tissues of the oxygen and nutrients they need.

The damage can result in dementia, which "causes the (usually gradual) loss of mental abilities such as thinking, remembering and reasoning", according to the NHS. It is not a disease, but "a group of symptoms that may accompany some diseases or conditions affecting the brain".

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting around two-thirds of Britain's 700,000 dementia sufferers.

One recent study showed that consuming up to two drinks a day could protect against the onset of dementia.

But numerous studies have recognized a link between heavy drinking and mental decline.

Last year an American study suggested that having more than two drinks a day could bring forward the onset of Alzheimer's by up to 4.8 years.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told The Observer that it was important "that people understand that alcohol-related brain damage can strike at any time of life."

The problem is so urgent that Dr Allen Thompson, guest editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism and spokesman for the Medical Council on Alcohol, has written to Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, calling for the NHS to give alcohol-related brain damage a similar priority to alcohol-related liver damage. The worrying finding suggests that having a heavy alcohol intake could be far worse for mental health than previously thought.

The research, published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, concluded that between 10 and 24 per cent of all cases of dementia could be caused by alcohol-related brain damage.

Dr Jane Marshall, one of the authors of the report, and a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill, south London, said the findings should come as a wake-up call to those who thought that dementia was only a disease of old age.

She said: "People think that dementia is something that happens to people over 65. But a lot of those under 65 have got cognitive problems and a large proportion of the problems in that group are related to alcohol. 

"Alcohol-related brain damage may account for 10 to 24 per cent of all cases of all forms of dementia. We know that alcohol is associated with serious cognitive impairment. It reduces memory and general cognition."

She also warned that women were more likely to develop dementia as a result of heavy drinking than men, because "they metabolise alcohol differently and so are more vulnerable".

Such a finding is particularly worrying because there has been a rapid rise in the numbers of young women drinking heavily in recent years.

A recent international survey found that Britain had the fifth worst teenage binge-drinking problem in Europe, out of 35 nations.

Fifty-five per cent of girls admitted that they had consumed five or more alcoholic drinks at one time in the previous month compared with 52 per cent of boys, according to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

Alcohol is a toxin that directly damages brain tissues and kills cells. It can also cause high blood pressure, which damages the blood supply to the brain, starving the tissues of the oxygen and nutrients they need.

The damage can result in dementia, which "causes the (usually gradual) loss of mental abilities such as thinking, remembering and reasoning", according to the NHS. It is not a disease, but "a group of symptoms that may accompany some diseases or conditions affecting the brain".

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting around two-thirds of Britain's 700,000 dementia sufferers.

One recent study showed that consuming up to two drinks a day could protect against the onset of dementia.

But numerous studies have recognised a link between heavy drinking and mental decline.

Last year an American study suggested that having more than two drinks a day could bring forward the onset of Alzheimer's by up to 4.8 years.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told The Observer that it was important "that people understand that alcohol-related brain damage can strike at any time of life."

The problem is so urgent that Dr Allen Thompson, guest editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism and spokesman for the Medical Council on Alcohol, has written to Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, calling for the NHS to give alcohol-related brain damage a similar priority to alcohol-related liver damage. 

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