Neural “kindling” has been proposed as the mechanism by which alcohol ingestion and subsequent withdrawal produce cognitive damage (Ballenger & Post, 1978). Repeated withdrawals are thought to generate an accumulative adaptive process that underlies the “advancing pathogenesis associated with the development of alcoholism [such that] continued alcohol abuse could be related to an avoidance of distress from worsening acute withdrawal symptoms induced by a kindling process that advances the course of alcoholism” (Breese, Overstreet, & Knapp, 2005, pp. 371–372). This view is consistent with an increased risk for brain damage from binge drinking and subsequent withdrawal (Hunt, 1993; Wechsler et al., 1994).
