Midlife alcohol consumption and longitudinal brain atrophy: the PREVENT-Dementia study
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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION
Midlife alcohol consumption and longitudinal brain atrophy: the PREVENT‑Dementia study Michael J. Firbank1 · John T. O’Brien2 · Karen Ritchie3,4 · Katie Wells5 · Guy Williams6 · Li Su2 · Craig W. Ritchie4 Received: 24 April 2020 / Revised: 11 June 2020 / Accepted: 12 June 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Background and aims Consensus is lacking on whether light to moderate consumption of alcohol compared to abstinence is neuroprotective. In this study, we investigated the relationship between self-reported alcohol use and brain volume change over 2 years in middle-aged subjects. Methods A sample of 162 subjects (aged 40–59 at baseline) from the PREVENT-Dementia programme underwent MRI scans on two separate occasions (mean interval 734 days; SD 42 days). We measured longitudinal rates of brain atrophy using the FSL Siena toolbox, and change in hippocampal volume from segmentation in SPM. Results Controlling for age and sex, there were no significant associations of either total brain, ventricular, or hippocampal volume change with alcohol consumption. Adjusting for lifestyle, demographic and vascular risk factors did not alter this. Conclusions We did not find any evidence of influence of alcohol consumption on changes in brain volume over a 2-year period in 40–60-year-olds. Keywords MRI · Alcohol · Mid-life · Brain volume · Longitudinal · Atrophy
Introduction High consumption of alcohol has consistently been linked with dementia and brain degeneration; however, several, but not all, studies have suggested that moderate consumption vs. abstinence is a protective factor against dementia [1, 2]. * Michael J. Firbank [email protected] 1
Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Nuns Moor Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 5PL, UK
2
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Level E4 Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Box 189, Cambridge CB2 0SP, UK
3
INSERM, Montpellier, France
4
Centre for Dementia Prevention, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
5
The Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 7th floor Commonwealth Building, Du Cane Road, London W12 0NN, UK
6
Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0SP, UK
Some studies of the association of alcohol consumption with brain volume have similarly found protective effects of light to moderate drinking [3], whilst others have found that brain volume tends to linearly decrease with increased alcohol intake [4]. Topiwala et al. [5] found higher alcohol consumption associated with smaller hippocampi, as contrasted with Downer et al. [6] who found larger hippocampi for those with moderate consumption. A systematic review concluded that hippocampal volume was reduced in those with problematic alcohol use [7]. All these studies used cross-sectional imaging data, and are thus not sensitive to any ongoing neurodegeneration. The aim of this study was to investigate alcohol con
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