Neurocognitive deficits of alcoholism: an intervention.

This study investigated the impact of cognitive retraining on a sample of neurocognitively impaired alcoholics (N = 45). The treatment group received training on a hierarchical cumulative learning program. In this paradigm, the subjects mastered an isolated concept to automaticity, at which point a second and then a third concept were added. The training group demonstrated significantly improved performance over the practice and control groups on the three measures taken from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: total number of categories, perseverative errors, and nonperseverative errors. Neither the practice nor the control group exhibited significantly improved performance. These data lend support to an information processing perspective and are at odds with research that infers that neurophysiological substrates preclude normal functioning in alcoholics and argues that mere exposure of alcoholics to training stimuli prompts significant improvements. Treatment implications are discussed.