Impairment of Executive Functions in Patients with Alcohol Use Disorders

Objective. To study the features of executive functions in patients with alcoholism and comorbid exogenous- organic brain damage of non-alcoholic origin. Materials and methods. The study included 65 men aged 24–55 years with alcohol dependence. The control group included 30 mentally healthy men. Standard neuropsychological tests were used to assess executive functioning: the Go/No-Go, Corsi, and Stroop color tests. Results. Patients with alcohol dependence and comorbid exogenous-organic brain damage were found to make statistically significantly more errors in the Go/No-Go task (missed Go signals: p = 0.004) and took longer to complete the Stroop color test (task completion time: p = 0.003). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the presence of exogenous organic brain damage predicted worse indexes of psychomotor reaction (p = 0.009) and cognitive flexibility (p = 0.021). Conclusions. Comorbid exogenous organic brain damage in patients with alcohol dependence leads to a significant deterioration of executive functions (psychomotor reactions and cognitive flexibility) as compared with patients with alcohol dependence only.