Alcohol and the Nervous System

Alcohol is the most widely used drug in the world, yet alcoholism remains a serious addiction affecting nearly 20 million Americans. Our current understanding of alcohol's effect on brain structure and related functional damage is being revolutionized by genetic research, basic neuroscience, brain imaging science, and systematic study of cognitive, sensory, and motor abilities. Volume 125 of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology is a comprehensive, in-depth treatise of studies on alcohol and the brain covering the basic understanding of alcohol's effect on the central nervous system, the diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism, and prospect for recovery. The chapters within will be of interest to clinical neurologists, neuropsychologists, and researchers in all facets and levels of the neuroscience of alcohol and alcoholism.

The first focused reference specifically on alcohol and the brainDetails our current understanding of how alcohol impacts the central nervous systemCovers clinical and social impact of alcohol abuse disorders and the biomedical consequences of alcohol abuseIncludes section on neuroimaging of neurochemical markers and brain function

Section 1 Introduction 1. Alcoholism:  diagnosis, prognosis, epidemiology, and burden of the disease  2. Perspectives on the Neuroscience of Alcohol from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Section 2 Animal Models:  Neurochemistry and Metabolism of Alcohol 3. Neurocircuitry of Alcoholism: Synthesis from Animal Models  4. Metabolism  5. Use of animal models of alcohol-related behavior

Section 3 Molecular Basis of Alcoholism 6. Molecular Basis of Alcoholism

Section 4 Neurological Signs and Consequences 7. Acute: Intoxication and Poisoning--Diagnosis and Treatment  8. Acute:  Withdrawal--Diagnosis and Treatment  9. Neurochemical mechanisms of alcohol withdrawal  10. Molecular and neurological responses to chronic alcohol use

Section 5 Neuropsychology 11. Methods of Association and Dissociation for Establishing Selective Brain-Behavior Relations  12. Profiles of impaired, spared, and recovered neuropsychological processes in alcoholism  13. Component processes of memory in alcoholism: pattern of compromise and neural substrates  14. Decision Making, Risky Behavior, and Alcoholism  15. Motor Systems and Postural Instability  16. Sex differences in alcohol-related neurobehavioral consequences

Section 6 Neuroimaging of Brain Macrostructure and Microstructure 17. Structural and microstructural imaging of the brain in alcohol use disorders

Section 7 Neuroimaging of Neurochemical Markers 18. Molecular imaging in alcohol dependence  19. Brain proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of alcohol use disorders

Section 8 Neuroimaging of Brain Function 20. Cognition, emotion, and attention  21. The neurobiology of alcohol craving and relapse  22. Compensatory recruitment of neural resources in chronic alcoholism

Section 9 Neuroelectrophysiology 23. Understanding alcohol use disorders with neuroelectrophysiology  24. Sleeping EEG

Section 10 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder 25. Neurobehavioral, neurological, and neuroimaging characteristics of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders  26. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: pathogenesis and mechanisms  27. Current hypotheses on the mechanisms of alcoholism

Section 11 Adolescent Drinking 28. The effect of alcohol use on human adolescent brain structures and systems

Section 12 Other topics 29. Peripheral Systems:  Neuropathy  30. Pharmacological treatment of alcoholism  31. Alcohol-Medical Drug Interactions  32. Genetics of alcoholism  33. Co-occurring psychiatric disorders and alcoholism  34. Hepatic encephalopathy in alcoholic cirrhosis  35. Neuropathology of Alcoholism  36. Genetic differences in response to alcohol  37. Epidemiology of drinking, alcohol use disorders, and related problems  38. Alcohol and the law  39. Clinical Management of Alcohol Use Disorders in the Neurology Clinic