title: Neurocognition in 1-month-abstinent treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent individuals: interactive effects of age and chronic cigarette smoking.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increasing age and chronic cigarette smoking are independently associated with adverse effects on multiple aspects of neurocognition in those seeking treatment for alcohol use disorders. However, the potential interactive effects of age and cigarette smoking on neurocognition in early abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals (ALC) have not investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional performances of never-smoking healthy comparison participants (nvsCOM; n = 39) and 1-month-abstinent, treatment-seeking, never-smoking (nvsALC; n = 30), former-smoking (fsALC; n = 21), and actively smoking (asALC; n = 68) ALC were compared on a comprehensive neurocognitive battery. Domains of functioning evaluated were cognitive efficiency, executive functions, fine motor skills, general intelligence, learning and memory, processing speed, visuospatial functions and working memory. Participants were between 26 and 71 years of age at the time of assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  asALC showed steeper age-related effects than nvsCOM on the domains of visuospatial learning, auditory-verbal memory, cognitive efficiency, executive functions, processing speed, and fine motor skills. In pairwise comparisons, fsALC and asALC performed more poorly than both nvsCOM and nvsALC on multiple domains; nvsCOM and nvsALC showed no significant differences. Domain scores for the ALC groups generally fell in the low-to-high-average range of functioning. A clinically significant level of impairment was apparent in only 25% of ALC participants on visuospatial learning, visuospatial memory, and fine motor skills domains. Measures of alcohol use or consumption were not significantly related to neurocognition in the ALC cohorts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The age-related findings suggest that the combination of active chronic smoking and alcohol dependence in this 1-month-abstinent ALC cohort was associated with greater than normal age-related effects in multiple domains. In general, a low level of clinically significant impairment was observed in the alcohol-dependent participants. The findings from this study, in conjunction with previous research, strongly support smoking cessation interventions for those seeking treatment for alcohol and substance use disorders.
authors.affiliation: Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND) , San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California; Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Durazzo
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Pennington
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Anderson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mon
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abé
authors.forename: Dieter J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Meyerhoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000639:trends; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Age; Alcohol Dependence; Alcohol Use Disorders; Cigarette Smoking; Neurocognition