Impairment of cognitive and psychomotor function by ethanol in social drinkers.

Ethanol is known to impair cognitive and psychomotor function in high doses. We studied the impairment of cognitive, psychomotor and behavioral responses in controlled environment in a group of healthy young social drinkers at below and above legal limit for presumption of intoxication (100 mg/dl). Attention, concentration, auditory-verbal memory and memory for visuospatial information were significantly impaired at both levels. Motor speed was impaired only at higher levels though fine coordination was impaired at both doses. Females showed more impairment on visual as well as auditory-verbal memory functions. With low doses, choice reaction time improved with the nonpreferred hand.