Drug dependence and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection compounded harmful effects of alcohol dependence on frontal cortical volumes but could not account for the frontally distributed volume deficits in drug-free participants with alcoholism. This according to a combined cross-sectional/longitudinal study that evaluated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data collected during 14 years in 199 controls and 222 alcohol-dependent participants (aged 25-75 years at initial study). It examined the association between prevalent comorbidities (drug dependence and HCV infection) and cortical volume deficits in alcohol dependence. Researchers found:

• Of the 222 participants with alcoholism, 156 (70.3%) were men.
• Participants with alcohol dependence had volume deficits in frontal, temporal, parietal, cingulate, and insular cortices; deficits were more prominent in frontal subregions and were not sex dependent.
• Accelerated aging occurred in the front cortex and precentral and superior gyri and could not be attributed to the amount of alcohol consumed.
• Those with HCV infection had greater deficits than those without HCV infection in frontal, precentral, superior, and orbital volumes.