Is There Cognitive Impairment in Clinically ‘Healthy’ Abstinent Alcohol Dependence?

Davies, Simon; Pandit, Smita A.; Feeney, Adrian; Stevenson, Brian J.; Kerwin, Robert; Nutt, David; Marshall, E. Jane; Boddington, Stephen; Lingford‐Hughes, Anne

doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh203

Cited by 94 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This finding is in line with other studies demonstrating deficits in the DSST in alcohol-dependent patients [57,58] and addiction disorders are well known not only to relate to striatal changes, but also decreased activation in the prefrontal cortex [53]. This may hint at an effect of alcohol on more general measures of cognitive functioning [58].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Model-Based and Model-Free Decisions in Alcohol Dependence

et al. 2014

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Background: Human and animal work suggests a shift from goal-directed to habitual decision-making in addiction. However, the evidence for this in human alcohol dependence is as yet inconclusive. Methods: Twenty-six healthy controls and 26 recently detoxified alcohol-dependent patients underwent behavioral testing with a 2-step task designed to disentangle goal-directed and habitual response patterns. Results: Alcohol-dependent patients showed less evidence of goal-directed choices than healthy controls, particularly after losses. There was no difference in the strength of the habitual component. The group differences did not survive controlling for performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Task. Conclusion: Chronic alcohol use appears to selectively impair goal-directed function, rather than promoting habitual responding. It appears to do so particularly after nonrewards, and this may be mediated by the effects of alcohol on more general cognitive functions subserved by the prefrontal cortex. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Model-Based and Model-Free Decisions in Alcohol Dependence

et al. 2014

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“…The disruptive effect of alcohol on response inhibitory control has also been observed in non-dependent heavy drinkers under acute intoxication [33,34] . Failure to detect a significant correlation between drinking variables and neurocognitive performance is consistent with earlier findings [4,7,35,36] .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Comparing performance between abstinent former alcohol-dependent patients and controls, one study [4] found similar performance on non-verbal memory and verbal fluency, but poorer performance on verbal memory, divided attention and IQ among the alcohol-dependent group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Neuropsychological Functioning during Alcohol Detoxification

et al. 2008

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This study investigates changes in neuropsychological functioning during early abstinence from alcohol. 30 alcohol-dependent inpatients were tested at intake (day 4 of admission) and post detoxification (day 26), using a test-retest design. The neuropsychological battery included measures of pre-morbid IQ, full-scale IQ, verbal and non-verbal measures of memory and executive function. IQ was within the normal range at intake and comparable with age-adjusted normative values and there were some impairments in memory and executive function. There were significant increases in performance scores post detoxification in working memory, verbal fluency and verbal inhibition but not in non-verbal executive function tasks (mental flexibility and planning ability). Despite increased scores on tests of verbal and memory skills after 3 weeks of abstinence, complex executive abilities showed little change. These may have a negative impact on engagement and response to treatment and compromise clinical outcomes, heightening the risk of relapse.

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“…Patients with alcoholism are commonly impaired on the DS (Beatty et al 2000;Davies et al 2005;Harris et al 2003;Hochla et al 1982;Sullivan et al 2002a;Sullivan et al 2000), as are many patients with any brain dysfunction. Although DS was not designed as an interhemispheric transfer task, coordination of the executive, visuospatial, motor, and mnemonic processes is required to perform the DS test successfully (Glosser et al 1977;Joy et al 2000Joy et al , 2003aKaplan et al 1991) and likely invokes frontally-based systems and interhemispheric communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%