Alcohol Health & Research World articles

Recent articles from Alcohol Health & Research World

Introduction to alcohol withdrawal.
December 22, 1998... Every year more than one-and-a-half million people in the United States either enter alcoholism treatment or are admitted to a general hospital because of medical consequences resulting from alcohol dependence. These patients, as well as a substantial number of other people who stop drinking...

Neurochemical mechanisms underlying alcohol withdrawal. (includes related article on preventing relapse)
December 22, 1998... During the past 25 years researchers have made rapid progress in understanding the chemical activities that occur in the nervous system (i.e., the neurochemistry) during alcohol withdrawal (AW), primarily from experiments using animal models of alcohol dependence (Samson and Harris 1992). At...

Kindling in alcohol withdrawal.
December 22, 1998... Alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse frequently involve drinking patterns in which bouts of heavy drinking (i.e., binge drinking) are interspersed with periods of abstinence. During the binge-drinking episode, the body, particularly the brain, adapts to the presence of alcohol by compensating...

Electrophysiological changes after repeated alcohol withdrawal.
December 22, 1998... The chronic use of alcohol and other drugs leads to adaptive changes in the brain that serve to counteract the effects of the continuous presence of the "offending" drug. When the drug is subsequently withheld, these changes result in neurochemical imbalances that lead to various...

Treatment of alcohol withdrawal.
December 22, 1998... Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal (AW) may range in severity from mild tremors to massive convulsions (e.g., withdrawal seizures). Mild AW can cause pain and suffering; severe AW can be life-threatening. The goals of AW treatment are to relieve the patient's discomfort, prevent the occurrence of...