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FUNCTIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT AND RECOVERY IN ALCOHOLICS
Abstract
Alcoholism represents a health threat of major proportion which encompasses a wide variety of physiological, sociological, and psychological traumata. Because neuropsychological functioning is involved in all three of these areas, it is thought that many of the problems and costs associated with alcoholism could be related to neuropsychological impairment. Thus, this study sought to explore the nature and extent of functional neuropsychological deficits in alcoholic subjects, the recovery of such deficits within 30 days of abstinence, and how drinking history variables impact upon both. Fifty alcoholic in-patients were tested with the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) shortly after admission into treatment and again 30 days later. To control for practice effects and to provide as pure a comparison group as possible, 20 age and education matched control subjects were chosen who were lifetime abstainers. To further assess the impact of drinking history, data was gathered and alcoholics were divided into groups representing high and low severity of both recent and lifetime alcohol consumption. Overall results provided strong support for diffuse neuropsychological impairment in alcoholics as compared to controls. Eight of 12 subscales of the LNNB revealed significantly poorer performance in alcoholics. Subjects with greater severity of recent drinking showed significantly greater impairment on 10 of 12 subscales, and those with greater lifetime drinking intensity showed greater impairment on 8 of 12 subscales. Thirty days of abstinence resulted in improved performance on virtually every subscale, 10 of 12 representing significant change as compared to controls. How drinking history affected improvement was less clear than was its impact upon initial deficits. Recovery did not appear to be a function of age or any particular pattern of drinking intensity. Improved methodology and statistics were suggested for clarification of this issue. Clinical implications were discussed which involved the nature of the deficits observed in the current sample and how they would be likely to impact upon the work of a clinician with his or her clients who drink alcohol, whether in treatment for alcoholism or not.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
MCINTYRE, BARBARA MAY, "FUNCTIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT AND RECOVERY IN ALCOHOLICS" (1986). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8704558.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8704558