Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 327, Issue 8491, 24 May 1986, Pages 1184-1186
The Lancet

Hypothesis
ALCOHOLIC DEMENTIA: A HYPOTHESIS

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(86)91162-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Dementia in alcoholics may depend to a large degree on cortical cholinergic deficiency resulting from involvement of key basal forebrain nuclei in a Wernicke-type pathology. Other neurotransmitter functions may also be implicated. Such a model accounts for the difficulty in establishing alcoholic dementia as a distinct disorder and in distinguishing it from Alzheimer's disease.

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