Monoamine activity correlates with psychometric deficits in Korsakoff's disease.

Korsakoff's psychosis is associated with impairments of memory and perception but not global dementia. We have previously reported diminished concentrations of catecholamine metabolites in the CSF of patients with Korsakoff's psychosis. In this study, we compared CSF monoamine metabolite data with performance on psychometric tests for 26 patients with this disease. We report that patients with more severe neurobehavioral deficits have lower concentrations of monoamine metabolites. Our data also provide evidence that diminished brain noradrenergic and dopaminergic activities are related to impairments on different psychometric tasks.