Neuropsychological deficits in sober alcoholics: Influences of chronicity and recent alcohol consumption

Background: The relationships between severity of neuropsychological (NP) d eficits and quantity and duration of alcoholic drinking remain controversia l. Eckardt et al. (1998) proposed that NP deficits can be observed only if chronicity of alcohol abuse equals or exceeds 10 years. In this study we te sted the hypothesis of Eckardt et al. and reexamined the relationship of NP performance and alcohol consumption. Methods: One hundred sixty-two alcoholics and 165 controls completed a NP t est battery at least 3 weeks after the alcoholics attained sobriety. Chroni city varied from 4 to 9 years for 55 alcoholics and from 10 to 33 years for the remaining 107. Results: Compared to controls, both groups of alcoholics were impaired on t he Shipley Vocabulary and Abstraction tests and on two versions of the Digi t Symbol test, but there was no difference between the two alcoholic groups on any measure. Regression analyses that controlled for age and education showed that chronicity predicted less than 0.5% of the variance on NP measu res. By contrast, a measure of recent alcohol consumption, the Quantity-Fre quency Index, contributed significantly (approximately 5% of the variance) to the prediction of alcoholics' NP performance. Conclusions: These data provide weak support for a dose effect relationship between degree of NP impairment and level of alcoholic drinking in the pas t 6 months but no evidence for an influence of chronicity.