Associations between alcohol consumption and gray and white matter volumes in the UK Biobank

Alcohol consumption is one of the leading contributors to the global burden of disease and to high healthcare and economic costs. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions worldwide, with harmful effects on physical, cognitive, and social functioning.

Chronic excessive alcohol consumption is associated with direct and indirect adverse effects, including (but not limited to) cardiovascular disease, nutritional deficiency, cancer, and accelerated aging.

Heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption shows similar negative associations with brain structure.

To address this, researchers examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds.

Consistent with prior literature, they found negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure. Specifically, alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure.

They showed that the negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two daily alcohol units, and become stronger as alcohol intake increases.

Published: 04 March 2022

source:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28735-5

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28735-5