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  • Title: Is there cognitive impairment in clinically 'healthy' abstinent alcohol dependence?
    Author: Davies SJ, Pandit SA, Feeney A, Stevenson BJ, Kerwin RW, Nutt DJ, Marshall EJ, Boddington S, Lingford-Hughes A.
    Journal: Alcohol Alcohol; 2005; 40(6):498-503. PubMed ID: 16186142.
    Abstract:
    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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