[Clinical and epidemiological studies of alcoholic dementia]

Abstract

Alcoholic dementia is hard to classify as a distinct disorder. The purpose of this study is to clarify the clinical characteristics of alcoholic dementia. Twenty four cases out of the 215 inpatients with alcoholism had been treated under the diagnosis of alcoholic dementia in the 12 mental hospitals. These 24 cases with alcoholic dementia were examined with the results as follows. 1) The mean ages at the time of admission to a mental hospital, and of examination in this study were 58 years and 63 years respectively. 2) Almost all of them had a long history of heavy drinking of alcohol. 3) At the time of admission to a hospital, they had already showed the symptoms of dementia such as amnesia, disorientation, poor understanding, disinhibition and impulsive acts, wandering a careless handling of fire, and so on. 4) Eighty percent of them showed severe or moderate dementia. 5) Cerebellar ataxia was observed most frequently as a neurological complication. 6) Diffuse atrophy of the cerebral cortex and cerebellum were the main findings on the brain CT.