028. Diagnosis

[vicodincrutch]

Doctors who give advice to people going through withdrawals are obvious idiots.

February is a stupid month. I don't mean that based on artificial flavoring and blatant marketing strategy day. Leap year and all that. Screws with the calender and gets in the way of Saint Patrick's Day.

Speaking of which: "Drinking kills braincells."

News flash. Alcohol abuse, we're talking drinking like a fish, full on inebriation regularly, can cause serious neurological damage, like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Cells injured are dendrites on neurons in the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in learning and physical coordination. But even in such extreme cases, there’s a lack of evidence that alcohol kills brain cells.

Anyone else have a ridiculous old wives tale? Wait. Don't answer that.

Comments

[vicodincrutch.livejournal.com]

What Mommy or Daddy will get if they have too many of their grown up drinks to help them calm down at the end of the day, everyday.

If medicine has a high degree of alcohol in it, and you're not having fun, switch your medicine.

[tinyvampiregod.livejournal.com]

Being a man of medicine, you should know better than to assume what meets the eye is always the truth.

What does the syndrome entail? I am curious as, for a time, I studied medicine myself.

[vicodincrutch.livejournal.com]

Looking like a child, you should expect unwarranted patronizing.

If you literally substitute alcohol for water, a thiamine deficiency and decrease in cerebral glucose utilization. Usually, good ol WK impairs the learning and vision. Other cases it causes lots of fun things, ataxia, severely screwed up motor skills, loss of sense of smell. Perpetual drunkness without the happy, really.

[tinyvampiregod.livejournal.com]

And the treatment would then be (discontinuation of alcohol, not withstanding) thiamine treatment?

Unwarranted patronizing and attempted bad touch, of course.

[vicodincrutch.livejournal.com]

Not completely, half-pint. You'd have to properly diagnose first. WK is taken for drunken behavior. To properly diagnose and treat the patient needs to be sober for close to 60 days, and unless there is hospital intervention that's like keeping a fat kid off of cake. And the longer dear old Dad has hit the bottle, the lower the chances are of a full recovery.

Only between strangers.