Wet brain: what every alcoholic should know

What is ‘wet brain’?

The wet brain is more than a brain soaked in alcohol. Did you know that it is a very real and very serious brain disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome? Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is caused by severe malnutrition and is due to a lack of vitamin B1. It is seen most often in alcoholics and other people who are severely malnourished. This can also include people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia.

In the alcoholic, WKS often goes unnoticed because the signs are often mistaken for intoxication. If you understand what Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is and recognize the warning signs early enough, it can be treated and the progression stopped.

What are the symptoms of wet brain?

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome These are actually two separate syndromes, Wornicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis, named after the doctors who discovered them. The two overlap and develop almost simultaneously, making the symptoms seem like a single disease. It is important to understand the signs and symptoms of both parts of this disease in order to know how much the disease has progressed and to determine what treatment is needed.

Wernicke encephalopathy:

Phase one of this disease is the part that begins to affect the brain. You will see these symptoms start to appear:

  • Slow eye movements, lazy eye, drooping eyelids, rapid eye movements, such as moving the eyes from side to side, blinking

  • Loss of muscle coordination, staggering, loss of balance.

  • Short-term confusion, memory and intellect loss

  • Lethargy, depression, inability to pay attention.

  • Tremors in the hands and feet, then in the arms and legs.

  • Muscle spasms and muscle pain

Because these symptoms resemble drunkenness so much, they go unnoticed until the alcoholic is able to maintain a significant period of sobriety. Only then, when the symptoms can no longer be attributed to the poisoning, does it become clear that something else is wrong.

Korsakoff psychosis:

Phase two develops as the symptoms of phase one disappear. These are the symptoms you may see:

  • Progressive memory loss, amnesia (permanently lost memories)

  • Confusion, difficulty learning or grasping new information, forgetting things that happened just moments ago

  • Collusion, lying to make up for the fact that they cannot remember things.

Can wet brain be cured?

At this point, stage two, the damage is generally not reversible. Most never recover from the effects of WKS, such as memory loss, which began with the first symptoms of Wernicke. Treatment, at this point, is crucial to control symptoms and prevent them from getting worse. This is a progressive disease; It will only get worse as time goes on. It is a type of dementia similar to Alzheimer’s that is not reversible and eventually causes death. Almost 20% of those who develop it will die from leaving it untreated. However, if treated, it can slow down or stop.

Treatment

Treatment consists of reversing the thiamine deficiency by administering a thiamine supplement by injection first and then orally. Hospitalization may be necessary at this time, until the patient regains some health. Thiamine treatments started so late will not improve memory or intellect loss, but may improve the person’s thinking and clear some of the confusion. They are also finding that some drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s disease can help improve some of the memory damage, but studies are still in progress.

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