3. Nervous system
- Mental illness has a very strong relation with alcoholism as it can be the cause of this addiction and it can also be the result of addiction either way it is very likely for an alcoholic to have some sort of mental illness. High rates of major depressive disorder, anxiety, and panic disorders are associated with alcoholism; as it changes the neural networks’ ability to fully process emotions properly. The risk for suicidal attempts is even higher in alcoholics .Since it is an addictive substance, it dysregulates glutamate transmission which is the cause for increased vulnerability to relapsing on exposure to the alcohol use triggers.
- Chronic alcoholism also leads to many sleep disturbances from insomnia, vivid dreams to waking up with hangovers feeling headaches and stomachaches.
- It is responsible for many brain lesions.
- Itincreased the risk of having strokes, hemorrhagic and ischemic.
- Cerebellar degeneration with jerky movements, slurred speech, and incoordination.
- Memory and learning problems withincreased risk of dementia.
- The sudden precipitation of epileptic seizures as it can cause sudden drop of blood sugar levels that can trigger fits.
- It also causes peripheral neuropathy due to deficiency in vitamins B6, B12, thiamine, folate, and vitamin E that cause numbness, muscle weakness, cramps, urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction.
- Another very important neurological disorder is Wernicke Korsakoff encephalopathy (WKE) due to lack of vitamin B1 thiamine causing acute mental confusion, incoordination, and even paralysis in eye nerves or a chronic form of psychosis with amnesia, difficulty walking and hallucinations.
- Alcohol withdrawal syndrome due to sudden reduction of alcohol use after a prolonged period of excessive consumption leading to anxiety, mood swings, headaches, nightmares, sweating , insomnia and the life threatening symptoms of alcoholic hallucinosis, delirium tremens, and autonomic instability. That is why alcohol withdrawal should be done gradually and under medical supervision for fear of any of these horrible complications and the earlier the treatment starts the better the outcome is with less severe manifestations.
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