Blusewicz M J, Dustman R E, Schenkenberg T, Beck E C
J Nerv Ment Dis. 1977 Nov;165(5):348-55. doi: 10.1097/00005053-197711000-00006.
Independent investigations of alcoholism and aging have demonstrated significant parallels between the two phenomena suggesting the possibility of "premature aging" as a result of alcoholism. To test this hypothesis a cross-sectional design was utilized with three groups of 20 male subjects: young normal (mean age 31 years), young alcoholics (mean age 33 years), and elderly normal (mean age 71 years). Eleven objective measures, selected from a battery of sensory and perceptual motor tests routinely used to evaluate cerebral dysfunction in hospitalized patients, were compared for the three groups. The results indicated a definite general decline in neuropsychological functioning with aging and suggested a similar trend with alcoholism. The tendency seen with alcoholism was least apparent with regard to fundamental sensory-motor functions and the perceptual functions of vision and audition and most apparent with regard to short term memory and abstract reasoning, i.e., higher mental processes. The results provided support for the hypothesis that chronic alcoholism causes premature aging of neuropsychological functions and possibly the brain.
对酗酒和衰老的独立研究表明，这两种现象之间存在显著的相似之处，这表明酗酒可能导致“早衰”。为了验证这一假设，采用了横断面设计，将20名男性受试者分为三组：年轻正常人（平均年龄31岁）、年轻酗酒者（平均年龄33岁）和老年正常人（平均年龄71岁）。从一系列常用于评估住院患者脑功能障碍的感觉和感知运动测试中选择了11项客观指标，对三组进行了比较。结果表明，随着年龄的增长，神经心理功能明显普遍下降，酗酒也呈现出类似趋势。酗酒所呈现的这种趋势在基本感觉运动功能以及视觉和听觉的感知功能方面表现得最不明显，而在短期记忆和抽象推理（即高级心理过程）方面表现得最为明显。这些结果为慢性酗酒会导致神经心理功能甚至大脑早衰这一假设提供了支持。
