SINGLE-PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY WITH IODOAMPHETAMINE-123 AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LONG-TERM ABSTINENT ALCOHOLICS

Ten long-term abstinent alcoholics (mean abstinence = 7.7 years) were compared with 13 recently detoxified substance-dependent inpatients (m ean abstinence = 25 days) and 8 nonalcoholic control subjects on globa l and regional measures of cortical cerebral blood flow (CBF), and on neuropsychological measures. CBF was assessed using (123)iodoamphetami ne (IMP) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) under cond itions of behavioral challenge (Raven's Progressive Matrices), CBF and neuropsychological test performance were worse in the recently detoxi fied inpatients. Of greater interest, there was a dissociation in the long-term abstinent group, which, while neuropsychologically indisting uishable from controls, showed significantly decreased mean cortical I MP uptake. We conclude that there may be persistant physiologic abnorm alities in long-term abstinent alcoholics who have achieved full behav ioral recovery, Smoking on the day of SPECT scanning was also identifi ed to be a significant confound to understanding CBF changes in alcoho lism.