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Background: Cognitive impairments are common in patients with AUD and worsen the prognosis of addiction management. There are no clear guidelines for screening cognitive impairments in hospitalized patients with AUD., Methods: Fifty-seven patients with an AUD history who were admitted to an acute hospital and assessed by the addiction care team were included. Those patients were screened for cognitive impairments using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test. We collected clinical information regarding addiction history, comorbidities, and current treatments. Chi-square tests, t-tests, and Mann-Whitney tests were performed to determine factors associated with a pathological MoCA score (<26)., Results: A pathological MoCA score was positively associated with spatial-temporal disorientation, difficulty in recalling addiction history, patient underreporting of AUD and a date of last alcohol consumption lower than 11 days ago, and negatively associated with a reason for hospitalization due to alcohol-related health issues. No medication was associated with cognitive impairments., Conclusions: Clinical elements from assessment by the addiction care team allow for relevant indication for screening cognitive impairments., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are the first-line treatment of alcohol withdrawal. Comorbidity between benzodiazepine use disorder (BUD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) is common. However, the risk factors are poorly characterized due to the paucity of available BUD screening tools. The present study aimed to rectify this by conducting an observational screening investigation for BUD in patients hospitalized for alcohol detoxification in a specialized unit. During a face-to-face interview, a short BUD screening tool, Echelle Cognitive d'Attachement aux benzodiazépines (ECAB), was administered to record recent patterns of BZD use, thereby allowing categorization of AUD patients as follows: non-BZD users, BZD users without BUD, and BUD (ECAB ≥6). Clinical and sociodemographic risk factors were identified and recorded during clinical assessment and were analyzed using nonparametric bivariate tests and multinomial regression for association with BUD, with p < 0.05 for significance. Of the 150 AUD patients, 23 (15%) had comorbid BUD. Several variables were associated with ECAB score, with their independence being verified using multinomial regression, with lower risk of BUD versus BZD use, when the initial prescriber was an addiction specialist compared with a psychiatrist or a general practitioner [odds ratio (OR) = 0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.14-0.75]. A higher risk of BZD use versus no use was evident when comorbid psychiatric disorders were present (OR = 9.2, 95%CI = 1.3-65). Our findings raise clinicians' awareness that in patients hospitalized for alcohol detoxification, BUD is highly prevalent but not specifically related to psychiatric disorders. BUD can be effectively screened by utilization of the ECAB., (© 2023 The Authors. Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.)

In this translational study, we investigated the plasma tau protein, neurofilament light chain (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), which are established biomarkers of neurological injury, as predictive biomarkers of alcohol withdrawal-associated brain toxicity. In the clinical study, patients with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) on D1 of hospitalization for alcohol cessation (AC) (N = 36) were compared to severe AUD patients with at least 3 months of abstinence (N = 16). Overall, patients were 40 men (76.9%), aged 49.8 years [SD ±9.9]. Tau, NfL, GFAP and UCHL1 levels were measured using SIMOA and analysed with a quasipoisson regression model adjusted for age and sex. The NfL level was higher in the AC group (p = 0.013). In the AC group, the tau (p = 0.021) and UCHL1 (p = 0.021) levels were positively associated with the dose of diazepam per weight, and the tau (p = 0.045), NfL (p = 4.9 × 10 -3 ) and UCHL1 (p = 0.036) levels were higher in the presence of signs of Wernicke's encephalopathy (n = 9). In the preclinical study, NfL and GFAP levels were assessed in the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) procedure (N = 17) and control Wistar rats (N = 15). Furthermore, ADE rats were prospectively assessed: after 24 h (T1) and 3 weeks of AC (T2) (paired-samples Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests). The NfL level was higher in the ADE model than in the control rats at both T1 and T2 (p = 0.033 and p = 1.3 × 10 -3 ) and higher at T2 than at T1 (p = 0.040). Plasma tau, NfL and UCHL1 are potential biomarkers of brain suffering during alcohol withdrawal., (© 2022 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Background: The prevalence of cognitive impairment is high among alcohol-dependent patients. Although the clinical presentation of alcohol-related cognitive disorder (ARCD) may resemble that of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the prognosis and treatment of the 2 diseases are different. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (tau, phosphorylated tau, and amyloid β) have high diagnostic accuracy in AD and are currently being used to discriminate between psychiatric disorders and AD, but are not used to diagnose ARCD. The aim of this study was to characterize CSF biomarkers in a homogeneous, cognitively impaired alcohol-dependent population., Methods: This single-center study was conducted in an addiction medicine department of a Parisian Hospital. We selected patients with documented persistent cognitive impairment whose MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) score was below 24/30 after at least 1 month of documented inpatient abstinence from alcohol. We measured the CSF biomarkers (tau, phosphorylated tau, and amyloid β 1-42 and 1-40) in 73 highly impaired alcohol-dependent patients (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score over 11 for women and 12 for men) with., Results: Patients' average age was 60 ± 9.1 years and 45 (61.6%) had a normal CSF profile, 8 (11.0%) had a typical CSF AD profile, and 20 (27.4%) had an intermediate CSF profile., Conclusions: This study revealed a high prevalence of AD in alcohol-dependent patients with persistent cognitive deficits and several anomalies in their CSF profiles. Thus, it is important to consider AD in the differential diagnosis of persistent cognitive deficits in patients with alcohol dependence and to use CSF biomarkers in addition to imaging and neuropsychological testing to evaluate alcohol-related cognitive impairment., (© 2021 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Subjects with alcohol use disorder (AUD) display a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs), and a high incidence of cardiovascular diseases associated with an earlier mortality. Abstinence has long-term cardiovascular and global health benefits. However, few studies have examined the short-term effect of alcohol cessation on cardiac function and key CRFs. The aim of the study was to assess brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and other CRFs on admission for alcohol cessation and 12 days later, in inpatients with AUD. A retrospective chart review of inpatients hospitalized for alcohol cessation was conducted. Patients who did not relapse at day 12 were included. We compared, at entry and at day 12, BNP and other CRFs: hemodynamic and electromyographic variables, lipid, homocysteine level, and liver enzymes at entry and at day 12. Wilcoxon, Student tests, and repeated-measures ANOVA were conducted. Fifty-five patients were included (38 males, mean age 50.5 years, alcohol per day 60 g-750 g, 44 current tobacco smokers). BNP was significantly increased (11.8 pg/mL [±16.2] to 35.5 pg/mL [±47.6], p < 0.001). Repeated-measure ANOVA showed a significant between-subject effect (p = 0.024), but no significant interaction between BNP variation and having a BNP at entry >10 pg/mL (p = 0.092). In contrast, a significant improvement on 8 of 13 other CRFs and liver enzymes measures was observed (p ≤ 0.05). A rapid improvement of several CRFs was confirmed. However, the increase of BNP at day 12 supports its investigation as a possible relevant biomarker of cardiac function in alcohol withdrawal., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest In the last three years, Florence Vorspan has had congress fees paid by pharmaceutical companies (RECORDATI, CAMURUS AB). She was also briefly involved in an advisory board for CAMURUS, but donated her salary to a non-profit NGO for hospitalized patients’ welfare. Julien Azuar reports grants from Fondation Pour la Recherche en Alcoologie. Frank Bellivier has received honoraria or research or educational conference grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Otsuka, Eli Lilly & Co., Servier, Takeda, Sanofi Aventis, Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, and the European Space Agency, and has received peer-review research funding from the Ministry of Research, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, the National Institute for Research (INSERM) and the NARSAD. The other authors have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Providing an on-site immediate diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and lung age in tobacco smokers could be a motivational tool for smoking cessation. Our aim was to investigate the effects of an abnormal spirometry results on motivational change and subsequent smoking cessation. We conducted a retrospective analysis of smoking status after 3 months of tobacco counseling. Patients were recruited in an addiction outpatient center. Spirometry results were obtained with a portable device during the first visit. The sample was thus divided in 3 groups: COPD, subthreshold-group (no COPD but abnormal lung age) and normal spirometry. Among the three groups, we compared the immediate motivation change, difference in Q-MAT motivation scale score after minus before spirometry (Kruskal-Wallis test) and the smoking status after 3 months (Fisher test). We included 48 patients (37 males, median age 44 years, median cigarette-per-day 20). Spirometry results divided the sample in COPD ( N  = 13), subthreshold ( N  = 11) and normal group ( N  = 24). Mean Q-MAT score change after spirometry was different between groups ( p  = 0.019), greater in COPD (4.62 ± 3.38) than normal group (1.46 ± 3.11), and lower in patient with a co-occuring hazardous alcohol use ( p  = 7.6 × 10 -3 ). Three-months smoking status was different between spirometry results groups ( p  = 0.0021). COPD (5/13, 38.5%) and subthreshold patients (6/10, 60.0%) had stopped more frequently than patients from the normal-group (2/22, 9.1%). The effect of immediate spirometry results on motivation to quit varies according to the screened pulmonary damages and hazardous alcohol use. It could be a useful tool in addiction treatment centers.