Alcoholic Neuropathy

Alcoholic neuropathy is a form of nerve damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption, affecting the peripheral nerves responsible for transmitting messages between the central nervous system and the body. It can lead to symptoms such as tingling, numbness, muscle weakness, and gastrointestinal issues. Following detox, comprehensive rehabilitation programs, like those offered at Resurgence Behavioral Health, provide the necessary support and treatment to address the psychological aspects of addiction.

Skills for Coping With Peripheral Neuropathy

For the most part, the studies identified utilised non-invasive cardiovascular reflex tests in order to measure autonomic dysfunction. A minority of studies measured the HR response to atropine administration, HR response to baroreceptor stimulation by external suction, and 24-h heart rate variability (HRV) 5, 8–11. Additional non-cardiac measures of autonomic function identified in this review include sympathetic skin response (SSR) and the methacholine test for iridic innervation 12–17. These investigations can be dichotomised to represent measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic function. Parasympathetic tests include HR response to DBT, Valsalva test and standing. Sympathetic tests include sweat spot test, SSR, BP response to standing and BP response to sustained hand grip.

• Since nutritional deficiencies are partly to blame for alcoholic neuropathy.
• To find a support group in your community, check with your doctor, a nurse or the county health department.
• Oxidative stress is known to play a very important role in experimental animal models of neuropathic pain.
• Alcoholic neuropathy is nerve damage that results from the toxic effect of alcohol on nerves.

Related MedlinePlus Health Topics

Keep reading to learn more about the symptoms, causes, and treatments for alcohol-related neuropathy. It’s no surprise that about 70 percent of pain patients, including those suffering from PN, back pain, headaches, arthritis and fibromyalgia, report they have trouble sleeping according to the Journal of Pain Medicine. If something especially stressful is coming up in your life, such as a move or a new job, knowing what you have to do ahead of time can help you cope.

Motor

The symptoms of alcoholic neuropathy can significantly impair an individual’s quality of life. Initially, symptoms might include tingling, numbness, or a burning sensation in the extremities, particularly the feet and hands. As the condition progresses, these sensations can lead to pain, muscle weakness, and even muscle atrophy. The nerve damage can also affect autonomic functions, leading to problems with blood pressure regulation, bowel and bladder control, and sexual function.

Treatment / Management

This study found that the response to treatment depended upon the severity of neuropathy and whether there was severe cirrhosis. No patients with grade III (severe sensory impairment, absent reflexes, foot drop, muscle wasting) neuropathy showed clinical improvement over the 4-week period, but 4/8 did show an improvement over 3–6 months. Amongst those who did not respond to thiamine, two patients with grade I neuropathy and one with grade II responded with the correction of low circulating nicotinic acid. One patient with grade I neuropathy responded with the correction of low pantothenic acid. One patient with grade III neuropathy responded with the correction of low circulating vitamin B6.

Research directions

• Unfortunately, patient compliance is poor, and the condition often progresses, leading to poor quality of life.
• What about some home remedy options or alcoholic neuropathy vitamins — do they exist?
• This could lead to disability, chronic pain, and damage to your arms and legs.
• These two groups, however, were distinct from the standpoint that nerve conduction velocities were slower and sural nerve biopsy specimens revealed more segmental demyelination in the post gastrectomy group.
• The recovery time for alcoholic neuropathy varies significantly among individuals and is influenced by the severity of the neuropathy and the individual’s history of alcohol consumption.
• Especially if you have been drinking heavily for many years, coping with alcohol use disorder is not easy.

However, the authors highlighted the inability to draw a conclusion from this study as the intestinal tract is likely to also experience direct toxic effects from alcohol 32. Showing similar results, a study considering gastrointestinal transit in chronic alcohol abusers found there was a significant correlation between mean daily consumption and gastric emptying times 33. A single study evaluated the effects of graduating levels of alcohol consumption on cardiovascular reflex test parameters, and identified no relationship between these variables 29. Of the six studies to consider TLDE a risk factor, four reported that long-term alcohol abusers with evidence of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction had a significantly higher TLDE than those without 2, 25, 29, 38.

Treatment

Although benfotiamine therapy was superior to Milgamma-N or placebo for all parameters, results reached statistical significance only for motor function, paralysis and overall neuropathy score. The reason for better results in the benfotiamine alone group than in the Milgamma-N group, despite the fact that the benfotiamine dosage was equivalent, is not completely understood. The authors hypothesized that vitamins B6 and B12 might have competed with the effects Substance abuse of vitamin B1 in the Milgamma-N group 97. In another small Russian study, 14 chronic alcoholic men with polyneuropathy were given 450 mg benfotiamine daily for 2 weeks, followed by 300 mg daily for an additional 4 weeks. During the treatment the regression of neuropathy symptoms, other sensor and movement disorders were observed.

Treatment for Alcoholic Neuropathy

These relationships make chronic alcoholism a risk factor for thiamine deficiency. In addition to thiamine deficiency, recent studies neuropathy from alcohol use indicate a direct neurotoxic effect of ethanol or its metabolites. Axonal degeneration has been documented in rats receiving ethanol while maintaining normal thiamine status 5.