Trail Making Test: Normative Data for Patients with Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuropsychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Addiction Medicine

Background:

• Cognitive impairment, especially in executive functions, is common in alcohol use disorders (AUD).
• Executive function deficits in AUD are linked to poorer treatment outcomes.
• The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a key tool for assessing executive functions, but lacks specific norms for AUD patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish normative TMT data for recently detoxified AUD patients.
• To compare TMT performance in AUD patients against existing healthy subject norms.
• To enhance the clinical evaluation of executive deficits in AUD.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 494 recently detoxified AUD patients in residential treatment.
• Administration of the TMT Parts A and B at treatment admission.
• Comparison of AUD patient performance with established normative data from healthy individuals.

Main Results:

• AUD patients demonstrated impaired TMT performance compared to healthy norms.
• TMT performance declined with increasing age and lower education levels, particularly on TMT Part B.
• No direct association was found between alcohol-specific variables and TMT performance.

Conclusions:

• AUD is associated with earlier-onset cognitive impairment in executive functions, even in abstinent patients post-withdrawal.
• The study provides crucial normative TMT data for the AUD population.
• These norms will improve the precise assessment of executive functioning in AUD patients during treatment.