If liver damage is evident, appropriate consultation with a Oxford House transplantation service is recommended. However, neuropathy is generally an exclusion criterion for transplantation. Individualized treatment programs delivered in a comfortable, relaxed setting promote healing in your recovery journey. When sensation decreases, it becomes harder to feel the ground, notice uneven surfaces, or catch yourself quickly. Numbness can also make it easier to miss blisters, cuts, or sores, especially on the feet, which can turn into bigger problems if they go unnoticed.
Medical and Clinical Care
Due to the breadth of the literature surrounding this topic, this review shall focus exclusively upon https://ecosoberhouse.com/ peripheral neuropathy, without discussing autonomic neuropathy. Excessive, long-term consumption of alcohol can lead to malnutrition as well as nerve damage, and both contribute to the development of alcoholic neuropathy. People should note that while “alcoholic neuropathy” is the current medical term, some healthcare professionals are beginning to use the term “alcohol-related neuropathy” to decrease stigma surrounding the condition.
What is alcoholic neuropathy?
- It also can affect other areas and body functions including digestion and urination.
- If your provider knows or suspects you have nerve injury, they’ll recognize typical neuropathic pain symptoms.
- For the most part this review consists of non-interventional studies for which generally accepted tools to evaluate risk of bias are not available.
- Your health care provider will perform a physical exam and ask about symptoms.
The morphological basis of post-alcoholic damage of neural tissue includes primary axonopathy and secondary demyelination of motor and sensory (especially small) fibers 105. Demyelination is probably the effect of axoplasmic transmission slowdown; such degeneration so-called dying back bears semblance to Wallerian degeneration 64, 84. An animal study on axonal transport in alcohol neuropathy vitro using dorsal roots of the sciatic nerve showed decreased axonal transmission after long-term ethanol consumption 106. In vivo study on rats showed impaired retrograde axonal transport 107, 108. Thus, ALN might be induced by the combination of the effects of the direct activity of alcohol metabolites on the nerve fibers along with nutritional deficiencies primarily in a form of thiamine deficiency.
Top doctors in ,
Damage to nerves from alcoholic neuropathy is usually permanent. It is likely to get worse if the person continues to use alcohol or if nutritional problems are not corrected. Alcoholic neuropathy is usually not life threatening, but it can severely affect quality of life. As you stabilize, outpatient and aftercare services help you keep improving. For more context on how alcohol affects the rest of the body, you can explore our guide on the long-term physical effects of alcohol and our overview of alcohol abuse and addiction. Speak with a healthcare professional if you experience symptoms of alcohol-related neuropathy or are struggling to stop drinking.
- When motor nerves are involved, muscles may feel weak, shaky, or quick to fatigue.
- Sudden drops in glucose deprive nerves of the energy needed for repair and function.
- By the time they’ve reached the third and final stage of alcoholism, drinking has consumed their lives.
- Hawley et al. followed up 11 patients with alcohol-related neuropathy who were abstinent from alcohol and who had begun to consume a normal diet 67.
Addiction Treatment Services
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. This study showed that as well as thiamine replacement, corrections of low circulating levels of nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6 can result in an improvement of alcohol-related peripheral neuropathies.
