Alcoholism

According to the Oxford dictionary, alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. This addiction can lead to many health problems if it's not treated. Through the years, many researches have shown that this dependence has serious on effects on the functioning of the nervous system, and particularly the brain (Oscar, 65). This paper will talk about the repercussions of alcohol on the nervous system and the neurotransmitters, the functions that are affected by this heavy drinking, and on the ways to stop this addiction.

To begin, as said earlier, chronic heavy drinking causes many problems on the nervous system; it has negative effects on temperature regulation, sleep and coordination (Oscar, 66). Severe amount of alcohol lower body temperature and changes the sleep patterns with the diminution of the REM sleep. The cerebellum, which is responsible for the coordination, is also affected and causes the loss of muscular coordination. On the other hand, alcoholism also alters with the neurotransmitters (Heinz, 57). After a long period of time consuming alcohol, the level of receptors of GABA and Glutamate, the majors inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters, change in response to the influence of alcohol on the neurons (Oscar, 70). When exposed to alcohol consumption, GABA, the inhibitory neurotransmitter, is increase and blocks the excitatory effects of Glutamate. Because of this blocking effect, the receptors of Glutamate will increase and the receptors of GABA will decrease (Heinz, 60). As a result of the new level of receptors, the withdrawal of alcohol will be extremely hard because alcohol, that was completing the balance, is missing. Glutamate, that will be overactive, can cause seizure (Oscar, 70). Alcohol also increases the binding of endorphins, which creates the good feeling related to drinking (Heinz, 61). To conclude, dependence to alcohol leads to major problems in the nervous system such as: sleep and coordination, and also alters with the neurotransmitters.

Moreover, alcoholic can also suffer abnormalities in their mental functioning, changes in their behavior and health problem (Oscar, 65). These problems can be identified with Neuropsychological test. The tests reveal that most of alcoholic's functions of the frontal lobe, which mean that the cognitive functions, are proved to be impaired. The cognitive functions include: the perception, the memory and the learning (Ratti, 276). As a result of this impairment, the alcoholic will demonstrate problems to pay attention, to process visual information and to learn new materials (Oscar, 67). The change in the behavior can also be observed in the expression of aggressive behavior (Ratti, 276).The impairment was more evident in the processing speed than in the motor speed (Ratti, 279). Concerning the difficulty of learning of new materials, a memory disorder as also been observed: the Korsakoff's syndrome. This is the most severe results of alcohol on long-term memory; this disorder is where a person appears to forget moments of her daily life as soon as they occur which means that their short-term memory has been lost (Oscar, 67). Other problems have also been related to alcoholism, such as vitamin deficiency and liver disease where both are caused by malnutrition