title: Delayed visual evoked potentials in chronic alcoholism.
abstract: Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were studied in 80 chronic alcoholics and in 43 normal subjects. In the patient group, P2 latencies and inter-eye differences were found above the 98% confidence limit in 30%, and above the 99.9% confidence limit in 10%. An abnormal waveform was observed in 12.5% and 7.5% of the patients. VEP abnormalities showed some statistical correlation with the gamma-type of alcoholism of Jellinek, but almost no correlation was observed with a variety of clinical and laboratory data. This suggest that VEP abnormalities are unrelated to other toxic effects of alcohol on the peripheral and central nervous systems or on metabolism.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*