[kj] OT: Drinking leads to brain shrinkage

[Brendan]

You're not really going to get ethics approval to experiment with giving
alcohol to non-drinkers to see if it affects their brain vol over time, so
you're limited to case studies of existing drinkers, and possibly people
who choose to start drinking themselves (requiring a baseline measurement
to be taken initially of course, then monitored). So yes, that's a valid
question to raise about the methodology of the study. Case studies
generally don't carry the weight of reproducable experiments.

Any possible attraction to the drink by small brain vol individuals could
feasibly be determined by a study into that specifically. Otherwise you're
limited to statistical data about brain volume based on age, gender, size
of yer noggin etc. Statisticians could advise the degree of statistical
accuracy about brain volumes but not whether or not people with less grey
matter are attracted to the drink, unless that study has already been
done.

*hic*


> Someone n another ist I sent this to pointed out that the way the study

> was conducted, it could also be that folks with smaller brains are

> attracted to drinking more. That is, no causal relationship between the

> two -- drinking and brain shrinkage - was definitively established.

>

> I dunno. I do believe long term chemical dependency and abuse does cause

> permanent personality change, however, brain size be damned.

>

> -Oliver

>

>

> Brendan wrote:

>> They were mentioning small decreases in brain volume, they didn't say

>> anything about turning people into drooling cretins.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Gathering mailing list

> Gathering at misera.net

> http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering

>