Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on September 26, 2005
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2005 40(6):498-503; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh203
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IS THERE COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN CLINICALLY ‘HEALTHY’ ABSTINENT ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE?
1 Psychopharmacology Unit, University of Bristol, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol, BS1 3NY, UK, 2 Section of Clinical Neuropharmacology, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London, SE5 8AF, UK, 3 National Addiction Centre, Box 48, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK and 4 South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Mental Health of Older Adults Directorate, Felix Post Unit, Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, UK
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Tel.: +44 117 954 6784; Fax: +44 117 954 6692; E-mail: anne.lingford-hughes{at}bristol.ac.uk
(First received 30 November 2004; first review notified 9 January 2005; in final revised form 26 July 2005; accepted 27 July 2005)
Aims: The aim of this study was to determine neuropsychological performance in apparently cognitively, mentally, and physically healthy abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects compared with control subjects who were recruited for a number of different neuroimaging studies. Methods: All subjects completed a battery of neuropsychological tests as part of the neuroimaging protocol. Results: The group dependent on alcohol performed as well as controls on a non-verbal memory test and verbal fluency but performed worse in the verbal memory task, Trail A + B, and total IQ derived from Silverstein's short-form of the WAIS-R. However, the IQ performance of both groups was above average. In both groups, age was associated with slower performance on the Trail A + B task. In the alcohol-dependent group, severity of dependence and length of abstinence was not associated with performance of any task. Conclusions: In this apparently clinically healthy population of abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects, frontal lobe dysfunction was detectable using the Trail A + B and digit symbol tasks. This was despite above-average WAIS-R IQ scores. Consideration needs to be given to routine incorporation of cognitive testing in alcohol dependence since subtle deficits may not be easily apparent and may impact on treatment outcome.
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