Motoric signs of CNS dysfunction associated with alcohol and cocaine withdrawal

Measures of hand tremor and body sway were recorded from 6 alcohol-dependent (AD) and 16 cocaine-dependent (CD) patients after 1, 3, and 12 weeks of verified abstinence. The same measures were recorded from 15 nonpatient control subjects after comparable intervals. Hand tremor was transduced via an accelerometer. Body sway was transduced by a force-sensitive platform. Analyses revealed different patterns of motoric dysfunction in the AD and CD groups. AD patients exhibited enhanced hand tremor during a pointing task and enhanced body sway. Both of these abnormalities remitted with continued abstinence. CD patients exhibited enhanced and unchanging levels of resting tremor across the first 12 weeks of abstinence, but they had normal levels of body sway and action tremor. These results are interpreted as reflecting a subclinical cerebellar dysfunction in recovering AD patients, and a subclinical extrapyramidal dysfunction in the CD counterparts.