Alcoholic Neuropathy: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

The alcohol use itself is the most significant player in alcoholic polyneuropathy. Symptoms of alcohol-related nerve damage develop gradually over time, and can become worse without treatment. Until symptoms become serious, many people may ignore or neglect their neuropathy. Alcohol can also cause depletion of some important nutrients, leading to deficiencies.

What Are Alcoholic Face Symptoms and How to Spot Them

Joining a support group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, may be beneficial in maintaining sobriety and providing a network of individuals who understand your experience. Your healthcare professional will continue to assist in managing your symptoms and monitoring your progress throughout your recovery. By combining nutritional support, medication, rehabilitation therapies, and lifestyle modifications, you can work towards a better prognosis for alcoholic neuropathy.

• To diagnose alcoholic neuropathy, medical professionals will generally perform a few tests or exams to determine the severity of the disorder and what can be done to treat and manage the symptoms.
• Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase is a mitochondrial enzyme which undergoes a single amino acid substitution (mutation) in about 50% of the Asian population in a way similar to the genetic changes in sickle cell anaemia [21].
• These abnormal proteins influence other cell populations especially the hepatocytes where the damage to hepatic mitochondria results in hepatic cirrhosis with reduction of energetic substrates in the liver.
• The use of warm or hot footbaths is a potential hazard in alcoholic neuropathy, because such treatment may cause burns to a patient with an insensate extremity.

What Are Its Causes and Risk Factors?

• The authors concluded that malnutrition, including low blood concentrations of B vitamins, is not a prerequisite for the development of alcoholic neuropathy, and ethanol per se plays a role in the pathogenesis of alcoholic neuropathy.
• These symptoms can occur in addition to the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.
• There is a strong correlation between AAN and Child-Pugh scale which suggests that liver cirrhosis progression is related to impairments in ANS [172].

This can result in a variety of symptoms that affect different areas of the body. Alcoholic neuropathy damages the nerves due to prolonged alcohol neuropathy stages and excessive alcohol consumption. This damage prevents the nerves from communicating information from one body area to another.

Alcohol Abuse Diagnostic Criteria and Biomarkers

Lettsom has observed that paralysis and hypoesthesia related to ALN presented a higher prevalence rate in lower limbs compared to upper limbs [60]. Antiepileptic drugs, such as the gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) analogue (gabapentin), have proven helpful in some cases of neuropathic pain. These drugs have central and peripheral anticholinergic effects, as well as sedative effects, and they block the active re-uptake of norepinephrine and serotonin. Recently, extended release gabapentin relieved symptoms of painful polyneuropathy [120].

Naik et al. [38] suggested the involvement of oxidative stress in experimentally induced chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve model in rats. Endoneural oxidative stress leads to nerve dysfunction in rats with chronic constriction injury [39]. A significant decrease in the activity of anti-oxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) and an increase in lipid peroxidation were observed in sciatic nerves of diabetic rats with established neuropathic pain [40].

What causes alcohol-related neurologic disease?

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• The primary axonal damage and secondary demyelination of motor and sensory fibres (especially small diameter fibres) are considered to constitute the morphologic basis of alcoholic damage to nerve tissue at present [20].
• An electromyography involves putting needles into the skin and muscles.
• Patients who have ALN might present such symptoms as cramps, impaired movement of the limbs, muscle atrophy, muscle weakness, spasms, or contractions, loss of sensation, or feeling of tingling.
• Joining a support group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, may be beneficial in maintaining sobriety and providing a network of individuals who understand your experience.

Study characteristics