of AUD. A critical and comprehensive assessment of humans with DSM-5 defined alcoholism is essential to describing the chronic effects of alcohol on the brain. Animal models, although imperfect, allow for a deeper investigation of the mechanism underlying the brain changes characterized in AUD. Alcoholism is known to reduce red blood cell count (Whitehead, Robinson, Allaway, & Hale, 1995); on admission to alcoholism treatment, those with lower red blood cell counts had larger ventricles (Pfefferbaum, Rosenbloom, Serventi, & Sullivan, 2004). Whether this relationship is causal, for example, could be asked in animals by reducing red blood count using hydroxyurea and determining whether there is an associated ventricular enlargement.
