It should be noted that abstinence from alcohol may be associated with recovery of brain volume. For instance, longer recent sobriety was associated with larger white matter volumes in abstinent women with AUD compared to men (Pfefferbaum, Rosenbloom, Deshmukh, & Sullivan, 2001; Ruiz et al., 2013), suggesting that abstinence from alcohol may reverse some of the neurotoxic effects of heavy, chronic drinking, particularly in women. Others found that alcohol abstinence reversed gray matter volume and cerebral ventricle volume changes in alcohol-dependent men and women (Sawyer et al., 2017; van Eijk et al., 2013). For example, total ventricular volume was 1.8% lower per year of sobriety (Sawyer et al., 2017). Thus, abstinence from alcohol may be related to the recovery of gray and white matter volumes in individuals with AUD, although whether SG modulates recovery is unclear.
