Clinical, psychometric and radiological signs of brain damage in chronic alcoholism

A total of 34 male inpatients with advanced chronic alcoholism and a clinical picture of impaired working capacity were examined by pneumoencephalography and 29 of them by psychometric tests. All or almost all (depending on the criteria chosen) showed degenerative changes in the cerebrum and about one-third showed degenerative changes in the cerebellum. All 29 patients who were psychometrically investigated showed signs of cerebral dysfunction. The correlation between the single pneumoencephalographic and psychometric variables was at most 0.46 and abnormalities of the third ventricle showed the highest correlation to the psychometric variables. An overall assessment of the degree of degenerative changes in the cerebrum (pneumoencephalographic findings) and the degree of cerebral dysfunction (psychometric findings) resulted in a correlation of r = 0.54 (P less than 0.001).