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Is there more than one neuropsychological disorder commonly associated with alcohol dependence?
Author(s) -
BOWDEN STEPHEN C.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1080/09595239200185831
Subject(s) - neuropsychology , wernicke encephalopathy , wernicke's encephalopathy , neuropathology , psychology , encephalopathy , psychiatry , alcohol dependence , alcohol , medicine , clinical psychology , pediatrics , cognition , pathology , disease , biochemistry , chemistry , thiamine , thiamine deficiency
There are two popular neuropsychological entities commonly attributed to the effects of alcohol dependence: the well‐known Wernicke‐Korsakoff syndrome, and the putative alcoholic encephalopathy. Wernicke‐Korsakoff syndrome is a highly variable neurological and neuropsychological disorder, which is frequently missed or misdiagnosed on clinical examination. The available prevalence figures suggest that Wernicke‐Korsakoff neuropathology probably occurs with a high incidence in hospitalized alcohol‐dependent people. Thus, Wernicke‐Korsakoff syndrome confounds clinical descriptions of the alcoholic encephalopathy and may account for most cases presumed to suffer from the latter disorder. Even if it is assumed that there is a specific alcoholic neurotoxicity, the clinical descriptions of this condition encompass features which are all attributable to Wernicke‐Korsakoff syndrome. In other words, the proponents of the alcoholic encephalopathy have failed to provide a distinctive description, thus precluding positive identification.