Improvement in memory and static balance with abstinence in alcoholic men and women: Selective relations with change in brain structure

Abstract

We investigated whether changes in memory or static balance in chronic alcoholics, occurring with abstinence or relapse, are associated with changes in lateral and fourth ventricular volume. Alcoholics meeting DSM-IV criteria for Alcohol Dependence (n = 15) and non-alcoholic controls (n = 26) were examined twice at a mean interval of two years with standard Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) tests, an ataxia battery, and structural MRI. At study entry, alcoholics had been abstinent on average for over 4 months and achieved lower scores than controls on WASI General IQ Index, WMS-R General Memory Index, and the ataxia battery. The ten alcoholics who maintained sobriety at retest did not differ at study entry in socio-demographic measures, alcohol use, or WASI and WMS-R summary scores from the five relapsers. At follow-up, abstainers improved more than controls on the WMS-R General Memory Index. Ataxia tended to improve in abstainers relative to controls. Associations were observed between memory and lateral ventricular volume change and between ataxia and fourth ventricular volume change in alcoholics but not in the controls. Both memory and ataxia can improve with sustained sobriety, and brain-behavior associations suggest selective brain structural substrates for the changes observed.

Attention, impulsivity, and cognitive flexibility in adult male rats exposed to ethanol binge during adolescence as measured in the five-choice serial reaction time task: the effects of task and ethanol challenges

“…Human studies have provided substantial evidence that protracted abstinence results in improvement in neurocognitive function (Fein et al 2006; Sullivan et al 2000a; Sullivan et al 2000b), and induces structural changes in the brain (Carlen et al 1978; O’Neill et al 2001; Pfefferbaum et al 1995; Rosenbloom et al 2007). Thus, in the present study, AIE-induced neurodegeneration may have been partially recovered by the time behavioral testing began.…”

Profiles of impaired, spared, and recovered neuropsychologic processes in alcoholism

“…Many studies have reported poorer performance by alcoholics as compared to nonalcoholic controls in general cognitive abilities or intelligence (Sullivan et al, 2000b; Sullivan et al, 2002b; Davies et al, 2005; Rosenbloom et al, 2007), but the deficits have been mild, or they tended to improve within a year of abstinence (Bates et al, 2002). Other studies have reported no alcoholism-related impairments in general intelligence (Oscar-Berman et al, 2004; Fein et al, 2006; Foisy et al, 2007; Marinkovic et al, 2009; Sullivan et al, 2010; Pitel et al, 2012b).…”

Monkeys that Voluntarily and Chronically Drink Alcohol Damage their Brains: a Longitudinal MRI Study

“…Despite decades of rigorous studies reporting regional cortical volume shrinkage and neuronal dysmorphology in vivo (Cardenas et al, 2011;Fein et al, 2009;Pfefferbaum et al, 2012;Zahr et al, 2011) and in postmortem tissue (Harper, 1998;Zahr et al, 2011), the question whether excessive alcohol consumption per se is the cause of these brain structural abnormalities remains unestablished. Although longitudinal neuroimaging studies provide compelling evidence for partial to complete reversal of observed brain tissue shrinkage or ventricular expansion with sobriety and progressive dysmorphology with continued drinking in humans (Cardenas et al, 2005;Pfefferbaum et al, 1995;Rosenbloom et al, 2007), such studies are constrained due to ethical and practical considerations when performed in human subjects and hence to their reliance on naturalistic observation. Thus, relevant factors, including premorbid assessment, environmental insult, nutritional deficiency, alcohol consumption patterns, comorbid psychopathology and other substance abuse, and the frequency of withdrawals cannot be controlled or often even adequately documented.…”