Answer to your Question

Answered By: Addiction Specialist

Answer: Despite being one of the oldest drugs known to mankind, the mechanisms by which alcohol affects the brain are still poorly understood relative to our understanding of most other drugs of abuse. However, it is known that alcohol impairs memory and it is likely that it does this through its effects on nerve cells that use a neurotransmitter called GABA. While alcohol affects all aspects of memory, it appears to have the most impact on the transferring of information from short term memory to long term memory. This happens in a dose dependent manner meaning that the more alcohol someone consumes, the less information is transferred into long term memory. So, someone who is intoxicated might not have a problem remembering something that happened two minutes ago, but may have difficulty remembering that same event the next day. If an individual consumes enough alcohol, the formation of long term memory becomes so impaired that little or no information is transferred into long term memory and this is experienced as a "blackout", where entire blocks of time cannot be remembered. If you are having blackouts, this is a serious sign of problem drinking and you should talk with your doctor about other negative health effects you may be having and strategies for reducing or stopping your drinking.

Answered on: October 13, 2008