Blackout Drunk

Alcohol and blackouts resulting from an overdose of alcohol clearly affects the brain, as seen by difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, delayed response times, and poor memory. Some of these limitations can be detected after just one or two drinks and disappear fast if drinking is stopped. A person who drinks heavily over a long length of time, on the other hand, may have brain impairments that last long after achieving sobriety. The exact effects of alcohol on the brain, as well as the possibility of reversing the effects of excessive drinking on the brain, are still hot issues in alcohol research today.

Alcohol and Panic Attacks

We do know that frequent drinking may have a wide range of consequences on the brain, ranging from minor memory lapses to chronic and severe disorders requiring lifelong care. And, as considerable research on the influence of alcohol on driving has demonstrated, even moderate drinking causes short–term impairment.

The way and amount to which alcohol affects the brain is influenced by a variety of variables (1), including:

1. How much and how often a person consumes alcohol;
2. How old he or she was when they first started drinking and how long they’ve been drinking;
3. age, education level, gender, genetic origin, and a family history of drinking;
4. if he or she is at risk as a consequence of prenatal alcohol exposure; and whether he or she is at risk as a result of prenatal alcohol exposure.
5. his or her overall health condition

This Alcohol Alert examines some of the most prevalent diseases linked to alcohol-related brain damage, as well as the persons who are most vulnerable to impairment. It examines both established and new therapies for the treatment and prevention of alcohol–related illnesses, as well as high–tech techniques that are assisting scientists in better understanding the effects of alcohol on the brain. 

“Have you ever awoken after a night of drinking not being able to recall things that you did or places that you went?” White and his associates questioned 772 college undergraduates about their experiences with blackouts. Of the students who had ever used alcohol, 51% said they had blacked out at some time in their life, and 40% said they had blacked out in the year leading up to the poll. 9.4 percent of respondents who indicated they drank in the two weeks leading up to the poll claimed they blacked out during that period. The students then discovered that they had taken part in a variety of potentially risky activities that they couldn’t recall, such as vandalism, unprotected sex, and driving.

Despite the fact that males drank much more frequently and heavily than women, equal percentages of men and women reported blackouts. This finding shows that, independent of alcohol intake, females—a population that has received little attention in the literature on blackouts—are more likely than men to experience blackouts. Differences in how men and women metabolise alcohol are most likely to blame for a woman’s predisposition to black out more readily. Even when men and women consume the same quantity of alcohol, females may be more sensitive to milder types of alcohol-induced memory problems. This begs the question, are women more vulnerable to the effects?

Many of the medical effects of alcohol abuse and thus the blackouts that result, are more severe in women than in males. After fewer years of severe drinking, alcoholic women acquire cirrhosis , alcohol–induced heart muscle damage (cardiomyopathy), and nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy than alcoholic males. However, studies comparing men and women’s susceptibility to alcohol-induced brain injury have come up short.

Two investigations examined brain shrinkage, a typical indication of brain injury, in alcoholic men and women using imaging using computed tomography, and found that both male and female drinkers had substantially higher brain shrinkage than control individuals. Heavy drinking has also been linked to learning and memory difficulties in both men and women, according to studies. The difference is that alcoholic women in these studies reported having been drinking excessively for roughly half as long as alcoholic males. This suggests that, like their other organs, women’s brains are more sensitive to alcohol-induced harm than men’s.

Other research, on the other hand, have not produced such conclusive results. In fact, two studies published in the same issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry opposed each other on the issue of gender-related sensitivity to brain shrinkage in alcoholics. Clearly, more study is needed on this issue, especially because alcoholic women have gotten less scientific attention than alcoholic males, despite the fact that there is evidence that women are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol on several critical organ systems.

People who consume high amounts of alcohol over a lengthy period of time, and as a result suffer blackouts, are at danger of having substantial and long-lasting brain abnormalities. Damage can occur directly as a result of alcohol’s effects on the brain, or indirectly as a result of poor general health or severe liver disease.

Thiamine insufficiency, for example, is frequent in persons with alcoholism and is caused by poor overall diet. Thiamine, commonly known as vitamin B1, is a substance that all tissues, including the brain, require. Meat and poultry, whole grain cereals, nuts, and dry beans, peas, and soybeans are all high in thiamine. 

Many foods in the United States, including breads and cereals, are fortified with thiamine. As a consequence, the majority of individuals get enough thiamine in their diets. Most Americans consume 2 mg per day; the Recommended Daily Allowance for males is 1.2 mg per day and 1.1 mg per day for women. However, up to 80% of alcoholics who suffer blackouts have thiamine deficiency (15), and some of these persons will develop significant brain diseases including Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) (16). WKS is a sickness that comprises of two distinct syndromes: Wernicke’s encephalopathy, which is a short–term and severe illness, and Korsakoff’s psychosis, which is a long–term and disabling condition.