Neuropsychological Deficits in Alcoholics: the relative contributions of gender and drinking history

Alcoholic inpatients at Bexley Hospital Treatment Unit were selected for cognitive assessment on a routine ‘consecutive admission’ basis. The male and female alcoholic groups performed significantly worse on the cognitive tests than matched controls. The ‘consecutive admission’ samples of 72 males and 33 females differed widely on drinking history data; males having significantly severer histories. The females performed worse on tests of immediate recall, and psychomotor speed. This performance difference endured whether the male and female groups were equated for drinking history differences statistically (by co-variance analysis), or by selection criteria (subject matching). The finding is discussed in the context of a greater vulnerability in women to the deleterious effects of alcohol, while noting the methodological complexities which prevent firm conclusions about causality. One possible conclusion is that females are more susceptible than males to the harmful effects of prolonged heavy drinking on cognitive performance. Alternatively, it may be that those females who become alcoholic are ‘at risk’ in some unspecified way which is reflected in the present performance differences.