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Cognitive performance in long-term abstinent elderly alcoholics.

George Fein1, Shannon McGillivray

  • 1Neurobehavioral Research, Inc., Corte Madera, California 94925, and Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. george@nbresearch.com

Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research
|September 20, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Elderly alcoholics with long-term abstinence generally show normal cognitive function, particularly those who stopped drinking later in life. However, some may experience deficits in auditory working memory.

Area of Science:

  • Gerontology
  • Neuroscience
  • Addiction Research

Background:

  • Extensive research documents alcohol's negative impact on cognition.
  • Studies increasingly explore cognitive recovery with abstinence.
  • Limited data exists on cognitive function in elderly individuals with very long-term alcohol abstinence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate cognitive functioning in elderly abstinent alcoholics (EAA) with varying durations of abstinence.
  • To compare cognitive performance of EAA with age- and gender-matched controls.
  • To explore the relationship between brain reserve capacity (cranium size, AMNART scores) and cognitive outcomes in EAA.

Main Methods:

  • 91 elderly abstinent alcoholics (mean age 67.3 years, mean abstinence 14.8 years) and controls were assessed.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Cognitive domains included attention, memory, executive function, and processing speed.
  • Subgroups were formed based on age at abstinence (before 50, 50-60, after 60).

    • Main Results:

    • Overall, EAAs performed comparably to controls across most cognitive assessments.
    • The subgroup abstinent before age 50 showed deficits only in auditory working memory.
    • EAAs exhibited larger cranium sizes, with larger sizes correlating with longer drinking history and shorter abstinence periods, yet better cognitive performance.

    Conclusions:

    • Elderly individuals with a history of alcoholism can achieve normal cognitive function with at least six months of abstinence, especially if they drank late into life.
    • Selective survivorship and potential selection bias may influence findings, suggesting healthier individuals with greater brain reserve are more likely to participate.
    • These results do not guarantee normal cognition for all elderly individuals with long-term alcohol abstinence.