Chronic heavy drinking linked to increased risk of dementia – A study published in The Lancet Public Health!

The study used data from the French National Hospital Discharge database (Programme de Médicalisation des Systèmes d’Information) which holds details on all hospital admissions, between 2008-2013. Carole Dufouil, deputy director of ISPED and co-director of the VINTAGE  “Vascular and neurological diseases: integrative and genetic epidemiology”  team (INSERM Center U1219 Bordeaux population Health, université de Bordeaux) collaborated in this research to this research project.

Alcohol use disorders are a major risk factor for onset of all types of dementia, especially early-onset dementia, according to the study. The study  shows that among the 57353 cases of early-onset dementia,39% where attributable to alcohol-related brain damage, and 18% of cases had other alcohol use disorders. According to the lead author, Dr Michaël Schwarzinger, Translational Health Economics Network, France “heavy drinking should be recognised as a major risk factor for all types of dementia”.

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