The neuropsychological consequences of abstinence among older alcoholics: A cross-sectional study

Background: The older alcoholic has been distinguished from the younger alc oholic with regard to both the acute effects of alcohol and also the recove ry of functioning with abstinence. Few studies, however, have included samp les of exclusively older subjects. in this investigation we examined the re covery of functioning in an older cohort of recovering alcoholics (age rang e 55-83) to determine which neuropsychological functions improve and which remain impaired with abstinence. Methods: We used a cross-sectional design, comparing three demographically matched groups on a battery of neuropsychological tests: (a) older alcoholi cs who had been abstinent for greater than 6 months, (b) older alcoholics w ho had been abstinent for less than 6 months, and (c) a control group of ol der subjects without alcohol abuse histories. Results: In almost all tasks, the alcoholics who were abstinent for less th an 6 months performed worse than the control group. rn contrast, the alcoho lics who had been abstinent for more than 6 months differed from the contro l group on learning and recall of a word list, immediate and delayed recall of a complex figure, initial letter fluency, and crock drawing. Conclusions: Memory and executive skills appear to be resistant to recovery or at least slower to recover with abstinence in the older alcoholic. The impairment with visuospatial skills reported in prior investigations of alc oholics may be related to compromised executive functions, which interfere with the encoding of more complex visuospatial information and thus affect recall of such information. Studies that involve larger samples of older al coholics are needed to understand their ability to recover cognitive functi oning with abstinence.