Is memory impairment greater than cognitive impairment in moderate chronic alcoholics?

The aims of the research were to test (i) whether moderate chronic alcoholics (A/pts) perform worse than non teetotaler controls (C/pts) either on memory or on intelligence tasks or on both, and (ii) whether there was a significant difference between verbal and spatial memory scores pointing to the claimed prevailing right hemisphere sensitivity to alcohol abuse. Great care was taken in selecting C/pts not to exaggerate by sample biasing the psychological effects of alcoholism. Intelligence was tested by means of verbal and performance Wechsler-Bellevue IQ and Raven PM47; memory was tested by means of serial immediate memory span and learning by means of verbal and spatial devices. The results support the conclusion that chronic wine alcoholism in a band of drinkers with lowish educational background and very set drinking habits impairs memory and intelligence without any significant difference. Moreover there is no evidence of a prevalent right hemisphere sensitivity to chronic alcohol addiction.