The fact that the use and abuse of alcohol damages brain tissue, and therefore its functions, has been known for a long time at both clinical and research levels (Bates, Bowden & Barry, 2002; Naim-Feil, Fitzgerald, Bradshaw, Lubman & Sheppard, 2014; Stavro, Pelletier & Potvin, 2013; Wilcox, Dekonenko, Mayer, Bogenschutz & Turner, 2014; Wollenweber et al., 2014). However, there is an ongoing debate about how this damage occurs and what consequences it has on alcohol withdrawal treatment (Horton, Duffy, Hollins Martin & Martin, 2015). Moreover, it is undervalued and not taken into account in healthcare settings where patients are treated for problems related to alcohol use (Horton et al., 2015), although it is estimated that between 9 and 22% of patients diagnosed with dementia abuse alcohol, and dementia is present in 10-24% of alcohol abuse patients (Ridley, Draper & Withall, 2013).

In alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD), two main neurotoxic dimensions are combined which will determine the degree of damage present in each individual, and whether or not this damage falls into the category of dementia (Moretti, Caruso, Dal Ben, Gazzin & Tiribelli, 2017):