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Heidelberg (pte028/18.05.2005/11:27) - Recent research done by German scientists has shown that women are more susceptible to brain damage from alcohol over a shorter period of time than men.
The research team, led by Karl Mann from the University of Heidelberg http://www.uni-heidelberg.de , took brain scans of 34 male and 42 female alcoholics, and 30 more from healthy ones of both sexes. The women alcoholics had only abused alcohol for an average of 5.5 years and the men, an average of 10.4. It was found that the women suffered the same amount of brain damage as the men. Although the women drank 13 drinks a day compared to the men's 17, factors such as body weight levelled out the alcohol consumption. A few per cent of the brain volume of both sexes was lost through alcohol abuse.
The results were published in 'Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
With other studies having shown that alcohol abuse effects women more quickly, Mann's study now shows that alcohol abuse can also bring about faster brain damage. However one positive outcome from the research for both sexes showed that after six weeks of non-drinking, brain atrophy was reversed.
Catherine Vidal, a neuroscientist at the French Atomic Energy Commission in Fontenay aux Roses, suggest that there could be other explanations for the research outcome. For example, would women's brains deteriorate further over another five years of drinking? She adds, "Someone who drinks only whisky will probably have a different profile from someone who drinks just white wine."
A colleague of Mann's, researcher Alexander Diehl, notes that comparing the brains of women and men who have been drinking over the same period of time might yield different results.
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