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Intellectual impairment in alcoholics: persistent issues.

O A Parsons
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Abstract

Intellectual impairment in sober intermediate stage alcoholics has been well established. However, a number of persistent issues remain to be explored. Three of the most important concern 1) variability in cognitive-perceptual functioning in samples of alcoholics, 2) differential vulnerability of cognitive-perceptual functions to alcohol abuse and 3) the relationship of cognitive-perceptual impairment to treatment behaviour and benefit. Consideration of these issues resulted in the following conclusions. There is a substantial minority of alcoholics who do not manifest impairment on any given cognitive test. Variability of findings with different samples of alcoholics may be, in part, a function of family history of alcoholism and/or severity of alcoholism. Verbal and rote learning functions are less sensitive to alcohol abuse than non-verbal, or complex verbal, abstracting/problem-solving skills. Alcoholics' impersonal and interpersonal problem-solving abilities are both impaired but appear to be uncorrelated. Impairment in cognitive-perceptual functioning in alcoholics does predict therapists' ratings of treatment behaviour and benefit.

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AlcoholismCognitionFemaleHumansIntelligenceLearningMaleMiddle AgedPerceptionProblem SolvingPsychological TestsJournal ArticleResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

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O A Parsons. 1987. Intellectual impairment in alcoholics: persistent issues.. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0954-6820.1987.tb13040.x

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