Pharmacological Treatment in Alcohol-induced Cognitive Disorder

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J Korean Med Assoc. 2008;51(1):84-89
Publication date (electronic) : 2008 January 31
doi : https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2008.51.1.84
1Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic University College of Medicine, Korea. kdj922@chollian.net
2Department of Social Welfare with Addiction Rehabilitation, Eulji University College of Health Industry, Korea. unclezo@eulji.ac.kr

Abstract

Alcohol-induced cognitive disorder is a very severe problem in problem alcohol drinker and alcohol itself seems to be one of the main causalities in the development of senile dementia. However, the spectrum of alcohol induced cognitive disorder is quite broad, for example, it covered from alcohol-induced persistent amnestic disorder to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and alcohol-induced persistent dementia. By that reason, broad spectrum of cognitive impairment by excessive alcohol drinking is regarded as alcohol related dementia. The pharmacological treatment is not well established yet in alcohol related dementia, except Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome which is definitely related to thiamine deficiency. Therefore we introduced that some reports about the clinical efficacies by rivastigmine or donepezil trial and recent outcomes of memantine trial by authors in this review.

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