A comparison of alcoholics and heroin abusers: computerized transaxial tomography and neuropsychological functioning

A number of conclusions may be drawn from the present neuropsychological and neuroanatomical assessment of alcoholic and heroin abusers: (1) Heroin abusers display deficits on the Category Test, TPT (Time and Localization) and Raven's Progressive Matrices (Set I and II) when compared to controls. (2) Alcoholics show significantly greater deficits than heroin abusers on these tests. (3) Duration of heroin and alcohol abuse are positively related to the extent of the observed deficits. (4) Observed deficits on the Progressive Matrices and Category tests appear to be reversible in the heroin abuser, but not the alcoholic, after comparable periods of remission. (5) The same proportion (1/15) of alcoholics and heroin abusers showed evidence of cerebral atrophy based on enlarged ventricular size.