Is there more than one neuropsychological disorder commonly associated with alcohol dependence?

Abstract

There are two popular neuropsychological entities commonly attributed to the effects of alcohol dependence: the well-known Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, and the putative alcoholic encephalopathy. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a highly variable neurological and neuropsychological disorder, which is frequently missed or misdiagnosed on clinical examination. The available prevalence figures suggest that Wernicke-Korsakoff neuropathology probably occurs with a high incidence in hospitalized alcohol-dependent people. Thus, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome confounds clinical descriptions of the alcoholic encephalopathy and may account for most cases presumed to suffer from the latter disorder. Even if it is assumed that there is a specific alcoholic neurotoxicity, the clinical descriptions of this condition encompass features which are all attributable to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. In other words, the proponents of the alcoholic encephalopathy have failed to provide a distinctive description, thus precluding positive identification.