Effects of age and alcohol abuse on pattern reversal visual evoked potentials

The Pattern Reversal Visual Evoked Potential (PRVEP) was recorded in normal subjects and alcoholics. The recordings were made from the patients during withdrawal and repeated after three weeks of detoxification. It was found that the N76 latency was longer in the alcoholic patient in the withdrawal phase than in the normal subjects. The latency returned to normal range after detoxification in younger alcoholic patients but did not in the older alcoholics. The age-related increase in the N76 latency in the alcoholic patients was similar to that in normal subjects but more exaggerated. For alcoholics, the age-related change in the N76 latency reached significance, but was only a trend in normal subjects. The P100 latency demonstrated significant age-related change, but far less modification related to the alcoholism than the N76 latency. It is unclear at present whether the failure of the latency to return to normal in older patients after detoxification is related to longer periods of excessive drinking, or to a particular vulnerability of the older patients to continued use of alcohol.