Long-term alcohol use in adolescence and neurocognition: a preliminary study

Background: Despite a large body of evidence of the negative effects of alcohol on cognitive functioning in adults, its effects in adolescence are still unclear. In previous studies, binge drinkingin adolescence has been associated with poorer neurocognitive performance with regards attention, working memory, spatial functioning, verbal and visual memoryand executive functioning. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether approximately 10 years of alcohol use from adolescence into early adulthood affects cognitive functioning. The participants were 39 subjects with heavy alcohol use measured at three time points over ten years using a shortened version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test(AUDIT-C) and 32 age-, gender- and education-matched controls. Methods: The participants underwent neuropsychological assessmentconsisting of measures of intellectual ability, executive functions, and verbal and working memory. In addition, all participants were interviewed using a semi-structured diagnostic psychiatric interview(SCID). Participants were asked about their alcohol use in the previous 12 months using the AUDIT-C at three time points in ten years. Lifetime drug use was also recorded with a questionnaire. Results: No statistically significant differences were found in any particular field of the neuropsychologicalevaluations. Conclusions: In our study on healthy young adults, no significant differences were found in neuropsychologicaltest results between alcohol users and non-users. Longitudinal studies are warranted to disentangle pre-existing defects from the dose-dependent effects of alcohol on neurodevelopment and to differentiate causes from consequences.