Abstract
Virtually every organ system is affected adversely by the excessive ingestion of alcohol,* but none more frequently or more seriously than the nervous system. Unlike the effects of alcohol on nonneural organs and structures, the clinical effects on the nervous system are remarkably diverse. This diversity derives from the fact that alcohol or alcoholism induces its clinical effects by several different mechanisms, namely, by a direct toxic effect on nerve cells, by the withdrawal of alcohol after a period of chronic intoxication, by inducing a state of nutritional deficiency that may affect the central or peripheral nervous system or both, and by crossing the placenta and damaging the fetal brain. The varied mechanisms by which alcohol affects the nervous system serve as the basis for the classification shown in Table 14.1.
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Victor, M. (1992). The Effects of Alcohol on the Nervous System. In: Medical and Nutritional Complications of Alcoholism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3320-7_14
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