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Alcohol acts as a general central nervous system depressant, but it also affects some specific areas of the brain to a greater extent than others. Memory impairment caused by alcohol has been linked to the disruption of hippocampal function—particularly affecting gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) neurotransmission which negatively impacts long-term potentiation ...
Alcohol can alleviate the drinker's feelings of stress or anxiety. Alcohol myopia limits those under the influence of alcohol to see the world through a nearsighted lens; [2] in other words, consumption of alcohol will lead individuals to temporarily forget about previous worries or problems, for these feelings lay outside of the restricted set of immediate cues that the drinker can respond to.
The effects can manifest much later—mid-life Alcohol Use Disorder has been found to correlate with increased risk of severe cognitive and memory deficits in later life. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Alcohol related brain damage is not only due to the direct toxic effects of alcohol; alcohol withdrawal, nutritional deficiency, electrolyte disturbances, and ...
Americans’ relationship with alcohol and their perception of how healthy it is may be changing — with younger people drinking a lot less, and many people in general reevaluating whether even ...
Alcohol-related brain damage can have drastic effects on the individuals affected and their loved ones. The options for treatment are very limited compared to other disorders. Although limited, most patients with alcohol-related cognitive deficits experienced slight improvement of their symptoms over the first two to three months of treatment. [8]
Intoxication does have real physiological effects, such as altering a drinker's perception of space and time, reducing psychomotor skills, and disrupting equilibrium. [74] But some effects and the degree of the effects that are attributed to alcohol can be due to the expectations rather than the substance itself, [75] similar to the placebo ...
Symptoms of varying BAC levels. Additional symptoms may occur. The short-term effects of alcohol consumption range from a decrease in anxiety and motor skills and euphoria at lower doses to intoxication (drunkenness), to stupor, unconsciousness, anterograde amnesia (memory "blackouts"), and central nervous system depression at higher doses.
Ethanol has a variety of analogues, many of which have similar actions and effects. In chemistry, "alcohol" can encompass other mind-altering alcohols besides the kind we drink. Some examples include synthetic drugs like ethchlorvynol and methylpentynol, once used in medicine. Also, ethanol is colloquially referred to as "alcohol" because it is ...