ASSESSMENT OF PROSE RECALL PERFORMANCE IN CHRONIC-ALCOHOLICS - RECALLOF ESSENTIAL VERSUS DETAIL PROPOSITIONS

Evidence for impaired psychological functions medicated by the left he misphere in sober alcoholics is inconsistent. We predicted that sober alcoholics have deficits in immediate and delayed memory similar to de ficits found in left hemisphere damaged patients. Four prose stories w ere administered to 24 alcoholics and 24 nonalcoholic peers and were s cored according to Webster et al.'s criteria for essential and detail propositions. These investigators found that right hemisphere stroke p atients performed significantly worse than controls on recall of detai l propositions. but left hemisphere damaged stroke patients performed worse on recall of both detail and essential propositions. Similar to their left hemisphere group, our alcoholics were impaired on both prop osition types supporting the hypothesis of a residual mild generalized brain dysfunction state in sober alcoholics. (C) 1997 John Wiley & So ns, Inc.