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More than two thirds of alcohol-dependent patients who stop drinking relapse within months. In newly abstinent patients, identification of biomarkers of susceptibility to relapse might improve treatments. Alcohol-related neurotoxicity in patients with chronic alcoholism reduces gray matter volumes in numerous cortical and subcortical areas and in the cerebellum; the deficits are more severe in those who relapse. Using high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging, researchers examined gray matter volumes in specific brain areas of 45 hospitalized, alcohol-dependent patients (35 men) after 1 month of abstinence and in 50 healthy social-drinking controls. The two groups were statistically similar in sex, race, and histories of mood an…