brain injury graphic
We will gladly answer all of your questions about rehabilitation at Centre for Neuro Skills.
brain injury graphic
brain injury graphic
brain injury graphic
Animations
Graphics
E-books
Educational CD's
Newsletters
Laminated Cards
Assessment Tool
Article Reprints
brain injury graphic
brain injury product box
brain injury product of the week
The ILS is a comprehensive tool for assessing activities of daily living, behavior and initiation skills following traumatic brain injury.
$10.00
brain injury product purchase button
brain injury graphic
Fall Issue 2009
Now Available!

Concussion Tissue Damage
TBI Treatment Wrong?
Case Study
TBI Haunts Children
Challenging Symptoms
Drug Treats TBI
2009-10 Conferences
brain injury graphic
brain injury graphic
Chronic Drinking and Smoking Cause Both Separate and Interactive Brain Injury

Special Report


Chronic Drinking and Smoking Cause Both Separate and Interactive Brain Injury

Most alcoholics in North America are chronic smokers. While much is known about the adverse effects of chronic smoking on cardiac, pulmonary and vascular function as well as the risk for various cancers, little is known about its effects on brain neurobiology and function. Symposium participants at the June 2005 annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Santa Barbara, California addressed the brain injuries that chronic smoking and drinking can cause separately as well as interactively. Proceedings are published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"Recent neuroimaging studies of chronic smokers have shown brain structural and blood-flow abnormalities," said Dieter J. Meyerhoff, professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, associate researcher at the Veterans' Affairs Medical Center San Francisco, and symposium organizer. "Specific cognitive dysfunction among active chronic smokers has been reported for auditory-verbal learning and memory, prospective memory, working memory, executive functions, visual search speeds, psychomotor speed and cognitive flexibility, general intellectual abilities, and balance. We also believe that the adverse effects of smoking, just like drinking, likely take many years to impact brain function significantly, and interact with age to produce a level of dysfunction that is apparent on cognitive tests."