Research findings/confirmations: The relationship between alcohol abuse and dementia (early onset).
"Overall, alcohol abuse was associated with a three times greater risk for all types of dementia. Alcohol was a factor in 57 percent of the 57,000 cases of early onset dementia, which is dementia that develops before age 65."
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=210371&ecd=mnl_day_022218
How strict do you define dementia. I want to point at Wernicke - Korsakoff syndrome caused by alcohol abuse and in an early state this has some resemblence to dementia.
An introduction to alcohol related dementia including Korsakoff syndrom is given at the website
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol-related_dementia
Korsakov syndrome is a very special and atypical kind of dementia, mainly because it is not progressive and is compatible with many years of life, albeit in an institutional or sheltered environment. However, alcohol itself, without any help from thiamine deficiency, can also cause typical cortical atrophy, which may be severe enough in its consequences to need institutional care. It now seems that this alcoholic atrophy can also initiate or exacerbate the processes that lead to Alzheimer dementia. My first alcoholism paper (Brewer & Perrett 1971) was also the last study of alcoholic cortical atrophy before CT scans made it much easier. I was able to follow up all 33 patients five years later and by that time four, of them - all from the group with the most severe atrophy - had been institutionalised for dementia or intractable alcoholic paranoia. 11 had died at an average age of 56. Even if 'pure' alcoholic dementia does not progress to an Alzheimer-like illness, it rarely improves. In a way, it is even worse than Alzheimer's because it can start young (I saw one patient in his 30s) and can last for decades before death from other causes. The background and lifestyle of some alcoholics means that as well as dietary deficiencies, repeated head injuries from fights (from childhood onwards) and repeated hypoxia from alcoholic coma add to the risk factors for brain damage. If alcoholics cannot control their drinking with an intact brain, even moderate brain damage may make control more difficult.
Please take a look at the following useful references.
Article Alcohol use and dementia: a systematic scoping review
Article Alcohol-related dementia: An update of the evidence
Article Midlife Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Dementia Over 43 Yea...
Article Alcohol-Related Dementia and Neurocognitive Impairment: A Review Study
Article Risk of Dementia and Alcohol and Wine Consumption: a Review ...
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