BDNF and Mental deterioration: Beyond individual cohort studies such as that of Martín-González et al., which reported markedly reduced circulating BDNF levels in patients with alcoholism [88], recent systematic and meta-analytic work indicates that individuals with AUD generally exhibit lower peripheral BDNF concentrations than healthy controls, with partial normalisation during abstinence and potential prognostic value for cognitive decline and relapse risk [89,90].