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K W Schaeffer

Publications and source records attributed to K W Schaeffer.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Does neuropsychological test performance predict resumption of drinking in posttreatment alcoholics?

The prediction of resumption of drinking in posttreatment alcoholics was investigated as a function of five possible confounding variables: depression, anxiety, childhood symptoms of attention deficit and conduct disorders and family history of alcoholism. Male and female detoxified alcoholics (n = 103) in inpatient treatment programs were administered a neuropsychological battery and retested as outpatients 14 months later; peer nonalcoholics (n = 73), given the same battery, had a similar interest interval. Alcoholics who resumed drinking (N = 41) performed significantly poorer on an overall neuropsychological performance index than abstainers (N = 62) who performed significantly poorer than nonalcoholics. Stepwise multiple regression equations using the variables noted above revealed that depressive symptoms, ADD and the performance index were the only variables to enter the prediction (R2 = .26, p less than .001); depression accounted for most of the variance. At retest all three groups improved significantly, but not differentially, and were as significantly different at retest as at initial testing. Implications of these results are discussed.

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PubMed1989

The relationship between neuropsychological and late component evoked potential measures in chronic alcoholics.

The relationships between event-related potential (ERP) measures and neuropsychological measures were investigated in a group of 39 male alcoholics and 22 age-matched male controls. Late component ERP measures such as N1, Nd, and P3 components and neuropsychological measures of perceptual-motor function, semantic and figural memory and verbal abstracting functions were included in a correlational analysis. No significant correlations between N1 amplitude or latency and neuropsychological tests were obtained. However, visual Nd amplitude correlated significantly with perceptual-motor tests and figural memory scores in the alcoholics. Significant correlations were found in alcoholics for visual P3 amplitude at PZ and delayed figural memory scores and two of the perceptual-motor tests. No significant correlations were obtained among the controls. These data indicate that significant relationships exist between some neuropsychological and ERP measures but that these relationships are restricted to measures of perceptual-motor functioning and to delayed figural memory.

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PubMed1989

Performance deficits on tests of problem solving in alcoholics: cognitive or motivational impairment?

This study tests the hypothesis that the performance deficits of alcoholics on tests of problem-solving abilities are due to impairment in motivation. The Conceptual Level Analogy Test and the Levine Hypothesis Test were administered to 40 sober middle-aged male alcoholic and 30 nonalcoholic individuals in a 2 x 2 [Group (alcoholic, nonalcoholic) by Monetary Incentive (incentive, no incentive)] between-subjects covariance design. The motivational manipulation was a performance-contingent monetary incentive. On the Levine test alcoholics performed less well than nonalcoholics but there were no incentive effects. On the analogy test, surprisingly, alcoholics did not differ from nonalcoholics in performance (probably due to the feedback necessitated by use of a performance-contingent incentive) although incentive effects were found across groups. However, there were no significant Group by Incentive interactions on either test or on self-report questionnaires of subjective states (e.g., effort expended) experienced during the tests. Thus, no evidence was found to support the impaired motivation hypothesis. The cognitive hypothesis remains as the most credible hypothesis to account for the performance deficits of alcoholics on tests of problem-solving ability.

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PubMed1988

Interpersonal problem solving in alcoholics.

In Study 1, a verbal role-playing test of interpersonal problem solving, the Adaptive Skills Battery (ASB), and selected "impersonal" neuropsychological problem-solving tests were given to male alcoholics (N = 73) in a VA alcohol treatment program and to male nonalcoholic controls (N = 36). Alcoholics' ASB competency scores under a "give your typical response" instructional set were significantly lower than controls' scores. In response to a "give the very best response" set, ASB scores for alcoholics and controls did not differ. Alcoholics' interpersonal problem-solving deficits appear to be due to their less effective execution of cognitive or problem-solving skills as opposed to their capacities for such skills. A lack of correlation between performance on impersonal neuropsychological tests and performance on the ASB suggests that these areas of functioning involve quite different psychological processes. In Study 2, alcoholics with alcoholic family members (family history positive) were found to have lower ASB scores than family history negative alcoholics. "Best" ASB responses were positively correlated with therapists' ratings of treatment behaviors and treatment outcome; "typical" ASB responses were not. Thus, alcoholics' therapeutic progress was predicted by their conceptualization of the "best" response in the interpersonal problem-solving situations and not by their typical pretreatment response.

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PubMed1988

Abstracting deficits and childhood conduct disorder as a function of familial alcoholism.

Using a large sample (n = 515), family history-positive male alcoholics (FH+) performed poorer than family history-negative (FH-) alcoholics on a test of abstracting ability. They also reported an earlier age of onset of alcoholism, more symptoms of childhood conduct disorder, and tended to report more depressive symptoms than FH- alcoholics, however, these variables were not significantly related to abstracting score. FH+ and FH- samples did not differ on average amount of ethanol consumed per day, vocabulary, state anxiety, childhood attentional deficit disorder, and childhood learning disability. The significant differences found in this study between FH+ and FH- alcoholics were minimal. With such weak effects, the inconsistent findings in studies that have investigated differences between FH+ and FH- alcoholics are understandable.

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PubMed1988

Learning and memory test performance in alcoholics as a function of monetary incentive.

The performance deficits of alcoholics on tests of learning and memory are typically attributed to cognitive impairment. This study tests an alternative hypothesis that the deficits are due to motivational impairment. A face-name learning and memory test was administered to 30 sober male nonalcoholic and 40 alcoholic subjects in a 2 x 2 [Group (alcoholic, nonalcoholic) x Monetary incentive (incentive, no incentive)] between-subjects design. The monetary incentive was made contingent upon performance. Alcoholics required significantly more trials to learn face-name pairs, and they recalled fewer face-name pairs at the delayed recall. Incentive subjects manifested a trend toward impairment on the trials-to-learn measure. However, there were no significant Group x Incentive interactions in learning or memory, or on a self-report questionnaire of subjective states (e.g., effort expended) experienced during the test. Thus, no evidence was found to support the impaired motivation hypothesis; the cognitive hypothesis remains as the most credible hypothesis to account for the performance deficits of alcoholics.

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PubMed1988

Subject selection biases in alcoholic samples: effects on cognitive performance.

The effects of subject selection bias in research on cognitive deficits in sober alcoholics were studied in a sample of 523 subjects (98 controls, 276 ineligible alcoholics, 40 eligible alcoholics who declined to participate, and 144 eligible and participatory alcoholics). All subjects received the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (Vocabulary and Abstracting subscales) and measures of anxiety, depressive symptoms, childhood hyperkinesis and attentional deficit disorders were obtained. Results indicate that current guidelines for alcoholic subject selection are biasing analyses toward support of the null hypothesis. Declined alcoholics performed more poorly on the Shipley Abstracting than did the "Used" group, yet did not differ significantly from the Used alcoholic groups on depression or anxiety. Declined alcoholics did, however, report significantly fewer Hk/MBD symptoms than did other alcoholic groups. ANCOVAs that used the affective and childhood disorders as covariates did not alter the differences in cognitive performance described above.

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PubMed1987

Learning impairment in alcoholics using an ecologically relevant test.

Sober male middle-aged alcoholics with a mean duration of 11.5 years of abuse and abstinence for a minimum of 3 weeks performed more poorly than age- and education-equated controls on a face-name learning test, replicating previously reported findings. Duration of alcoholism was unrelated to learning scores; however, a measure of alcohol intake (maximal quantity-frequency) over the 6 months before treatment was significantly and inversely correlated with learning. Significant positive correlations between face-name learning and ratings of alcoholics' treatment behavior by their therapists provided objective evidence that the face-name learning test is ecologically relevant.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Drinking practices and neuropsychological test performance in sober male alcoholics and social drinkers.

The relationships between alcohol intake (per occasion over time) and performance on neuropsychological tests, as they might be affected by anxiety and depression, were investigated in both an alcoholic (N = 60) and social drinking (N = 43) sample. alcoholics, a Maximum Quantity Frequency (MQF) of alcohol consumed over the previous six months was found to be the best predictor of an impairment index. Neither anxiety nor depression were correlated with test performance. In social drinkers, anxiety was the best predictor of performance on the impairment index; depression was not predictive. Neither MQF nor a commonly used measure of drinking behaviors, weighted quantity per occasion (QPO), significantly predicted performance in the social drinkers once anxiety was accounted for. The results support the assumption that in alcoholics the greater and more frequent the alcohol ingestion, the more the brain's functioning is disrupted, at least as reflected in neuropsychological test performance. Anxiety appears to play a major role in the test performance of social drinkers and should be monitored in future studies in this research area.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Alcoholism and family history of alcoholism: effects on visual and auditory event-related potentials.

In a dual-modality paradigm, visual and auditory event-related potentials were elicited in 40 alcoholic men and 30 controls, equated with the alcoholics on age and education. Half of each group had first-degree relatives who were alcoholic (family history positive). The amplitude of the visual N1 component was reduced among the alcoholics, but their auditory N1 amplitudes were normal. Average N1 amplitudes were also smaller in the family history positive subjects but this effect was significant only for auditory stimuli. Alcoholics showed reduced average P3 amplitudes to both visual and auditory signals, particularly in the family history positive group. Clearly, stratification by family history is useful for ascertainment of ERP variation among alcoholics. There were no effects on P3 latency. Among several possible explanations of P3 deficits in alcoholics, two are particularly interesting: (1) alcoholics cannot mobilize sufficient processing resources in the service of effortful cognitive functions; (2) alcoholics, being poorly motivated, apply insufficient effort to cognitive tasks. An experiment designed to test these hypotheses is described.

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