This article reviews alcoholic neuropathy and its symptoms, causes, and treatment. Speak with a healthcare professional if you experience symptoms of alcohol-related neuropathy or are struggling to stop drinking. The sooner you stop drinking alcohol, the more https://ecosoberhouse.com/ favorable your outlook is if you have alcohol-related neuropathy. Research suggests you can recover from some or all of the nerve damage caused by alcohol-related neuropathy.
- Due to similar histologic and electrophysiological symptoms, it was believed that ALN may make up a subtype of beriberi 146.
- N-acetylcysteine may have application in the prevention or treatment of neuropathy.
- Sometimes alcohol causes such severe damage to the body that a liver transplant may be necessary.
- The most important risk factor for alcohol-related peripheral neuropathy is the total lifetime dose of ethanol, although other risk factors have been identified including genetic, male gender, and type of alcohol consumed.
How to Prevent Alcoholic Neuropathy
- This condition can be acute, affecting people for a short period of time before resolving, or chronic, lasting for a longer period of time.
- The researchers found that the levels of vitamin E, an agent that in part is bound to LDL cholesterol and which may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, also are lower in alcoholics than in nonalcoholics.
- Our writers include physicians, pharmacists, and registered nurses with firsthand clinical experience.
- Uniquely, Vittadini and colleagues found a relationship between the type of alcohol consumed and neuropathy.
- The most effective strategy to prevent further neurologic deterioration is for the patient to reduce or discontinue alcohol abuse.
It is possible that hepatic dysfunction and alcoholic toxicity each cause neuropathy independently, and that there is frequently overlap between the two. It may also be that comorbid hepatic dysfunction is a risk factor for alcohol-related peripheral neuropathy. Further studies are required to develop a greater understanding of the alcoholism neuropathy interaction these entities. N-acetylcysteine, an amino acid, is a potent antioxidant and helps to enhance glutathione concentrations. N-acetylcysteine may have application in the prevention or treatment of neuropathy.
Alcoholic Neuropathy Treatment
Because of the diverse effects of alcohol on the body, these patients should be managed by an interprofessional team. The treatment rests on abstinence from alcohol and the replacement of key nutrients. Unfortunately, patient compliance is poor, and the condition often progresses, leading to poor quality of life. The primary aim of this systematic review was to establish the prevalence, character, and risk factors of peripheral neuropathy amongst chronic alcohol abusers and to identify the most appropriate management strategies.
Symptoms
Chronic alcohol consumption can have deleterious effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems. One of the most common adverse effects seen in patients with chronic alcohol use disorder is alcohol neuropathy. This commonly presents with pain, paresthesias, and ataxia in the distal lower extremities. The exact number of people affected by this condition is not known, but studies have shown that up to 66% of patients with chronic alcohol use disorder may have some form of the disease. The cause is multifactorial, from both nutritional deficiencies and alcohol metabolism’s direct toxic effects on neurons.
- Active denervation (presence of positive waves and fibrillations) was also present in the majority of patients.
- Lamotrigine was effective in relieving central post stroke pain 121 and painful diabetic polyneuropathy 122, but recent larger studies have failed to show a pain relieving effect in mixed neuropathic pain 123 and painful polyneuropathy 124.
- When speaking with a doctor, a person should be honest about how much alcohol they consume.
- Later, the results have been supported by Victor and Adams (1961)—among 12 patients with ALN, neuropathic symptoms were alleviated just after thiamine supplementation, even though the alcohol consumption was previously completely reduced 149.
- Reduced glutathione is a major low molecular weight scavenger of free radicals in cytoplasm.
How we reviewed this article:
It has previously been considered in relationship to nutritional, especially thiamine, deficiencies seen in alcoholics. Thiamine deficiency is closely related to chronic alcoholism and can induce neuropathy in alcoholic patients. Ethanol diminishes thiamine absorption in the intestine, reduces hepatic stores of thiamine and affects the phosphorylation of thiamine, which converts it to its active form 12. In addition, patients with chronic alcoholism tend to consume smaller amounts of essential nutrients and vitamins and/or exhibit impaired gastrointestinal absorption of these nutrients secondary to the direct effects of alcohol.
Alcohol-related peripheral neuropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The relationship of alcohol consumption to cardiovascular disease in diabetic people has not been well evaluated. However, substantial information on the association of alcohol and cardiovascular disease exists from population studies that included an unknown percentage of diabetics. Those findings suggest that alcohol consumption, particularly moderate consumption, may have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. Oxidative stress is known to play a very important role in experimental animal models of neuropathic pain. Lee et al. 36 suggested that reactive oxygen species are importantly involved in Sober living house the development and maintenance of capsaicin-induced pain, particularly in the process of central sensitization in the spinal cord in rats. Naik et al. 38 suggested the involvement of oxidative stress in experimentally induced chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve model in rats.