Evidence also shows that thiamine deficiency alters norepinephrine, dopamine (Mousseau et al. 1996), serotonin (Nakagawasai et al. 2007), and histamine (Langlais et al. 2002; McRee et al. 2000) synthesis and catabolism pathways. Thiamine deficiency may target focal brain areas such as the thalamus because, relative to other brain structures, it has lower levels of monocarboxylic acid transporters and acetyl-CoA-synthetase. This makes these areas less capable of generating energy from acetate (Qin and Crews 2014), which is a potential source of cellular energy in place of glucose in alcoholism (Volkow et al. 2013).
