To assess the frequency of silent brain infarcts and cerebral cortical atrophy in male alcohol dependant psychiatric patients in post war Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH).

We analyzed twenty male alcohol dependant patients who were treated in the Department of Psychiatry in University Clinical Centre Tuzla during one year period (July 2007-July 2008), and to whom Computerized Tomography (CT) scan of neuro-cranium were done, according to age, war engagement, brain trauma, employment, smoking and presence of silent strokes and cerebral cortical atrophy. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Average age of the group of patients studied was 48.8±6.0 years, and 13/20 was hospitalized for the first time. Eleven of 20 were engaged as soldiers during the 1992-95 war in BH. Four of them were wounded and two of them had air-blast injury and head stroke without concussion. Fourteen of twenty were unemployed, and two of them were retired. Only one was admitted with alcoholic delirium. Eleven of twenty were cigarette smokers. Half of them had CT objectified silent stroke, and sixteen of twenty had generalized brain cortical atrophy. Brain cortical atrophy was significantly negatively associated with war engagement, while silent stroke were positively associated with age of patients.

Brain cortical atrophy and silent brain stroke are frequent findings in computerized tomography of the brain in psychiatric patients with alcohol dependency.