Cognitive Deficits in Alcoholic Women

R indicates that long­term alcohol abuse1 can impair virtu­ ally all of the brain’s information­ processing (cogni­ tive) functions. Much of this research has been limited to the study of alcoholic men, perhaps, in part, because for many years, the primary locations for such research were Veterans’ Administration hospitals. This situation has changed in recent years. With increasing treatment availability and changing social mores regarding alco­ holism, more women are obtaining treat­ ment, thereby becoming available for study. This article focuses on the neuropsy­ chologic and neurophysiologic conse­ quences of long­term alcohol abuse in women. Broadly defined, neuropsycho­ logic functions include learning, memory, abstract thinking, problem­solving, perceptual­motor skills (such as eye­hand coordination), and the ability to analyze spatial relationships (Hunt and Nixon 1993). Neurophysiologic functions are related to the structure and electrical activity of the brain.