Neuropsychology in alcoholic men in their late thirties: one-year follow-up.

In a previous article the authors reported on two groups of alcoholic men in their late 30s who were remarkably free of neuropsychological impairment. In this article they present the results of a 1-year follow-up of many of these subjects. They found similarities in performance between alcoholic subjects who in the original study had been abstinent for 18 months and nonalcoholic control subjects who drank moderately. However, the group of alcoholic men who in the original study had been recently detoxified (about 3 weeks) failed to show practice-effect learning on follow-up. The authors interpret this failure as possibly indicative of a preclinical phase of what might ultimately become organic impairment.