Addiction & Substance Abuse
Addiction and substance abuse have a good chance of significantly affecting a person’s life in many ways, including how our brains work. A recent study within the renowned medical journal Alcohol and Alcoholism has revealed that there is quite a bit of hope for the future of those who detox from alcohol. The study suggests that improvements with an alcoholic, of a cognitive nature can take place in a mere few weeks.
Are You An Alcoholic: A significant amount of people battle with substances
It is no surprise that a large number of people battle with substance use disorder. This struggle can lead to a range of troubles in cognitive functions including executive functioning impairments, memory loss, attention issues, and more. The gaps or lack in parts of cognition have been tied into bigger measured rates of relapse and an increase in symptoms in substance use disorders. Regardless of these facts, there have been recent studies that some cognitive functions can indeed improve when alcohol abuse is removed from a person’s life. The factors around the improvements of these functions is not fully understood but the study does look to take a longitudinal approach when it comes to closely studying the improvements with an alcoholic, that have been highlighted.
Are You An Alcoholic: The Study
The study saw Mr. Bernard Angerville and his team study 32 people who had severe addiction and substance abuse disorders along with 32 un-addicted people who would serve as the controls in the study. The group of people who were made up of subjects suffering from alcohol use disorders was admitted to a substance use programme in a hospital in France from 2018 to 2019. The subjects were particularly selected, and could not take part if they had certain health issues (such as head trauma, stroke, epilepsy, etc.) used other substances, had other psychiatric diagnoses, or used other substances (addictive in nature).
The people in the study went through a detoxification programme which included treatment workshops and lasted between 5 and 9 days. The other control subjects were taken from a database with zero histories of any disorders be it neural, mental, or other diseases. All 64 subjects had to undergo sociodemographic measures and other assessments. These are just a few of the important notes to understand about the study in order to understand its nature of it, as well as the thoroughness of the study and subsequently, how legitimate the results should be regarded.
Are You An Alcoholic: Results
The results of the study revealed that 6 out of 10 people with alcohol use disorders showed impairments eight days after the termination of alcohol. Now, of those who showed the impairments, 63% of those showed marked improvement and regained normal levels of functions a mere 18 days post-alcohol use termination. There were also some incredible and promising rates of recovery in the areas of memory (episodic and working). Not only that but flexibility performance was also recorded at 100%!
What this medical field Journal study has succeeded in doing is it has allowed the medical field, health practitioners and Rehab Centres such as Houghton House Group of Treatment Centres to take further steps to understand how our functions can improve following detox from substance abuse. Yes, the sample sizes were not large, so the power of the study is limited and cigarettes were excluded from the exclusion criteria thus possibly affecting the results as we know that it could have an effect on cognition.
There are additional studies needed, that is for sure, but one thing is certain, the study proves that there is hope in recovery from addiction, sooner and possibly more powerful and effectively than previously thought. This is great news and demonstrates once again that should you be sitting on the fence about ditching the bottle, or other substance now is the best time. Start over, regain your mind, body, and spirit and conquer the New Year!
More information on the study is below:
Title of study: Early Improvement of Neuropsychological Impairment during Detoxification in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder
Authors: Bernard Angerville, Anne-Lise Pitel, Alain Dervaux, Hakim Houchi, Ludivine Ritz, Margaret P Martinetti, Hélène Beaunieux and Mickaël Naassila.