Severe iron-deficiency anemia with thrombocytosis may be a risk factor for carotid artery thrombus formation. Medical management with anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy is a reasonable approach for these patients while the thrombus resolves.

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The ability of five factors (depressive symptomatology, neuropsychological performance, psychosocial maladjustment, previous treatment history, and childhood attention deficit disorder symptomatology) to predict relapse was examined in a follow-up experimental design. Fifty-eight male and 45 female alcoholics were interviewed immediately following release from inpatient treatment units. Fourteen months later, 41 subjects (41%) were classified as resumers; 62 (59%) were abstainers. Resumers showed significantly poorer scores than abstainers on all five of the predictor variables. Discriminant function analysis resulted in 75% correct classification of resumers and abstainers (chi 2 = 22.1, p less than .001). Stepwise multiple regression resulted in isolation of depressive symptomatology as the best single predictor of relapse.

The measure of number of withdrawals, as a separate drinking variable of relevance to cognitive functioning in alcoholics, is a relatively uninvestigated measure. An ethanol withdrawal hypothesis has been suggested that would predict poorer cognitive performance with increased number of withdrawals from alcohol. In this study, the effects of withdrawals (defined as a 24 hr period of abstinence following the consumption of alcohol) on tests of learning and memory were examined. Using 76 male and 67 female alcoholics, results indicate that greater number of withdrawals is related to poorer memory test performance. Results provide support for the ethanol hypothesis of poorer cognitive performance with increasing number of withdrawals, and suggest that females may exhibit accelerated responses to the effects of alcohol misuse.

No abstract