Atrophy of the cerebellum is commonly associated with alcoholism. Gross vermian atrophy is commonly seen postmortem in alcoholics (Phillips et al 1987), and it also has been observed with in vivo neuroimaging techniques (Sullivan et al 2000). White matter volume of the cerebellar vermis is significantly reduced (Baker et al 1999; Pentney et al 2002; Sullivan et al 2003), and cerebellar vermian atrophy occurs in 25%–40% of all alcoholics. Vermal white matter volume was reduced in ataxic alcoholics by 42%. It occurs even more often in people with additional thiamine deficiency, with 35%–50% of those individuals showing evidence of superior vermian degeneration (Victor et al 1989).
