Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the neuropsychologidal problem of young sober alcoholics.
Methods: Subjects consisted of 13 young sober alcoholics (10 males, 3 females) and 12 non-alcoholics (9 males, 3 females) between the age of 27 and 39. Their education levels were above high school. All subjects were administered various
neuropsychological tests, including the digit span, the digit symbol and the block design subtests of K-WAIS, the paired association memory and the figural memory of WMS-R-Ⅲ, the determinants reaction time and the motor performance test of
Vienna
Test
System, and the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST).
Results: The young sober alcoholics were found to show significantly lower performance than the non-alcoholics on neuropsychological tests-the block design, the digit symbol, third time of the paired association memory test, the response
time on
the determinant reaction time test, fine-motor functioning in motor performace test. In addition, they showed higher perserverative response and perseverative error on WCST.
Conclusions: The overall performance of young sober alcoholics with higher education on various neuropsychological tests were poorer than the non-alcoholics, suggesting the possibility that even the short-term alcohol addiction may lead to
the
impairment of cognitive function.
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