Cortical Gray Matter Loss in Treatment‐Naïve Alcohol Dependent Individuals

Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that structural brain changes in treatment-naïve alcoholics are less severe than those reported in clinical samples of alcoholics, perhaps due to less concomitant psychopathology and a reduced severity of alcoholism in treatment-naïve alcoholics. However, caution must be taken when comparing our findings with results from clinical samples, as we did not directly compare treatment-naïve alcoholics with treated alcoholics and our treatment-naïve sample tended to be younger than the (clinical) samples reported in the literature. Nevertheless, we suggest that most of the reports of the central nervous system consequences of alcoholism may not accurately describe the majority of alcoholic-dependent individuals.