Learning impairment in male and female alcoholics

Abstract

Male VA alcoholics have been found to perform significantly poorer than nonalcoholics in face-name learning. Can these results be (a) replicated in a sample of male alcoholics from community treatment programs, (b) extended to female alcoholics, and (c) accounted for by childhood symptoms of attention deficit, conduct, and learning disorders? Seventy-six male and 66 female alcoholics were compared to 48 male and 49 female nonalcoholic controls on a 12-item face-name learning test. Both male and female alcoholics had poorer learning scores than their respective control groups. Learning scores were unrelated to self reports of childhood attention deficit disorder, conduct disorder, and learning problems. Whether alcoholics' impaired face-name learning is due to the direct effect of alcohol on the brain or is a concomitant of alcoholics' disrupted interpersonal relationships remains to be investigated.