Cognitive impairment and cerebral atrophy in "heavy drinkers"

1. Aim of the work was to verify the following three hypotheses in alcoholi cs: a) right hemisphere, b) diffuse brain deficit; c) anterior brain defici t, by means of a neuropsychological and a neuroradiological assessment. 2. 15 alcoholic right-hand male subjects and 15 matched controls were enrol led in the study. 3. Specifically designed neuropsychological testing was performed to invest igate logical abilities, selective attention and memory. 4. Neurological investigation was performed by a standard CT scan to assess the degree and localization of brain damage. 5. Alcoholics performed worse than controls on some neuropsychological test s, i.e. Attention Matrices Test, Verbal Judgement Test, Forward Digit Span, Story Recall and Remote Memory Test. The analysis of variance adjusted by the attentional score showed no significant differences between alcoholics and controls. 6. Neuroradiological data showed a preminnent and a more frequent atrophy o f the frontal region. 7. No correlations emerged between neuropsychological and neuroradiological data. 8. In conclusion, the hypothesis of anterior brain deficit seems to be conf irmed by our study.