Open AccessAlcohol and the Nervous System
Author(s) -
F Lees
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
brain pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.986
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1750-3639
pISSN - 1015-6305
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-3639.1997.tb01022.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , medicine , psychology , psychoanalysis , computer science
Autopsy studies in the 1970-1 980 period showed that the Wernicke Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS), which is caused by thiamin deficiency, was more common in Australia than any other country in the world. In 1991 mandatory enrichment of bread flour with thiamin was introduced into Australia. To determine the effectiveness of this measure the brains of 2212 sequential autopsies from a forensic Institute were studied neuropathologically to identify cases of WKS. Twenty five cases were identified, a prevalence of 1.1%, which is significantly less (P4I.0001) than previous studies. It appears that thiamin sup plementation of flour Is a useful public health measure.