Cognitive functioning and treatment outcome in alcoholics.

The primary objective of this study was to determine whether cognitive functioning at intake into treatment was associated with completion of a 30-day day hospital alcoholism rehabilitation program and 1- and 6-month posttreatment functioning. None of our measures of sociodemographic characteristics, cognitive functioning, and life functioning was found to be significantly correlated with program completion. The measures of cognitive functioning included four cognitive factors--language ability, auditory verbal learning, logical memory, and complex cognitive functioning--as well as an objective measure of within-treatment learning. Canonical correlation analyses were performed to estimate associations among 14 independent variables and seven measures of both 1- and 6-month follow-up outcomes. The independent variables included the five cognitive measures described above, race and age, and seven baseline Addiction Severity Index (ASI) interviewer ratings of severity of alcohol, drug, family/social, legal, medical, employment, and psychological/psychiatric problem levels. The dependent variables at each follow-up evaluation point consisted of the difference between the baseline and follow-up ASI composite (factor) scores in the seven areas of functioning described above. The findings revealed the relative independence of improvement in alcohol problem level at both followup periods, as contrasted with the relative interdependence of the other areas of functioning. Greater baseline alcohol problems and poorer complex cognitive functioning were most consistently associated with improved alcohol-related outcome. Other cognitive measures ere not significantly associated with treatment outcome in the other areas of functioning described above.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)