Addiction and Brain Damage (Routledge Library Editions: Addictions) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1138210889 ISBN 13: 9781138210882

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

Originally published in 1980, recent research had produced new insights into how, at the biochemical level, alcohol and other drugs of abuse can impair metabolic and neuropsychiatric functions. Epidemiological studies were also demonstrating that even moderate drinking or drug abuse can produce significant brain damage.

This book draws together the latest biochemical, physiological and clinical research on these topics at the time. The initial chapters discuss how alcohol can interfere with various functions: the adaptability of metabolic processes as governed by the ability of the liver to synthesise new enzymes, cell membrane transport, nervous transmission and the transport of nutrients into the brain. It is suggested that opiates, and possibly alcohol, may affect the endorphin system by blocking the uptake of specific amino acids.

The second half of the book reports clinical investigations using biochemical studies, psychological tests, EEG investigations and Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT) scanning. It gives the first report of a long-term study by Lishman and co-workers using an improved tomography technique to assess brain damage in alcoholics. These studies give convincing evidence that heavy drinking, even at socially-acceptable levels, can cause serious brain damage in vulnerable people.

About this title

About the Author

Derek Richter

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138210889
• ISBN 13: 9781138210882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308
• Editor: Richter Derek