The first year after treatment: factors affecting time course of reversibility of memory and learning deficits in alcoholism.

Ninety-two alcoholics admitted to the Tayside Area Alcoholism Unit in East Scotland were examined on four tests of memory and learning two weeks after cessation of drinking. Sixty-two were re-examined at four weeks, forty-one at eight weeks, thirty-five at six months and thirty-two at one year after initial abstinence, although some resumed drinking. There was a significant improvement in testing results over the year following treatment, greatest in the period from four to twenty-six weeks. Improvement was most marked in the patients who remained abstinent or almost abstinent and in those not malnourished at admission.