A profile of neuropsychological deficits in alcoholic women.
Neuropsychological deficits, most notable in executive, visuospatial, and functions of gait and balance, are detectable in alcoholic men even after a month of sobriety. Less well established are the severity and profile of persisting deficits in alcoholic women. The authors used an extensive test battery to examine cognitive and motor functions in 43 alcoholic women who were sober, on average, for 3.6 months. Functions most severely affected in alcoholic women involved visuospatial and verbal and nonverbal working memory processes as well as gait and balance. Areas of relative sparing were executive functions, declarative memory, and upper-limb strength and speed. The authors found that lifetime alcohol consumption was related to impairment severity on Block Design (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, D. Wechsler, 1981) and verbal and nonverbal working memory, suggesting a dose effect of alcohol abuse. The alcohol-related deficits in working memory, visuospatial, and balance implicate disruption of prefrontal, superior parietal, and cerebellar brain systems.
Sullivan
Edith V
EV
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305-5723, USA. edie@stanford.edu
Fama
Rosemary
R
Rosenbloom
Margaret J
MJ
Pfefferbaum
Adolf
A
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology