Advances in neuroscience have sharpened our understanding of how alcohol affects the brain. This explosion of knowledge enables therapists to move their understanding and ways of talking about alcohol abuse with their clients away from the subjective values and fuzzy measurements that often fail to break through their denial. By bringing the latest scientific knowledge and clarity into their discussions, therapists can explain to clients and their families not only how alcohol affects behavior and relationships, but also how it alters and damages the most basic architecture and functioning of the human brain. Changes occur on every level, from regions of the brain, to neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, and down to the most basic cellular level, where the manufacture of neurotransmitters and the brain cells which transmit and receive them are affected.
This new knowledge helps therapists more accurately diagnose and differentiate between alcohol use and abuse. It can better inform therapists’ treatment decisions and recommendations. As the research grows, aided by sophisticated new brain imaging techniques, some of the long-standing questions about alcohol’s effects on the brain are finally being answered.
Here’s a quick recap: