Alcohol can damage the brain in many ways. The most serious effect is Korsakoff's syndrome, characterized in part by an inability to remember recent events or to learn new information. Based on ECA data, alcoholics are 21.0 times more likely to also have a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder compared with nonalcoholics. Antisocial personality disorder. Comorbid ASPD has prognostic and treatment implications for alcoholics.
Bulimics commonly exhibit multiple drug use disorders and have high rates of alcoholism.
However, symptoms of depression are likely to develop during the course of alcoholism, and some patients with mood disorders may increase their drinking when undergoing a mood change, fulfilling criteria for secondary alcoholism. The severe tremors, feelings of tension, restlessness, and insomnia associated with withdrawal begin to subside after 4 or 5 days, although a vulnerability to panic attacks and to generalized anxiety may continue for months. Other drug abuse. Comorbidity affects the course of illness and the response to treatment of both alcoholism and its comorbid illnesses, whether these occur simultaneously or sequentially. This situation is unacceptable.