Single photon emission computed tomography with iodoamphetamine-123 and neuropsychological studies in long-term abstinent alcoholics

Ten long-term abstinent alcoholics (mean abstinence = 7.7 years) were compared with 13 recently detoxified substance-dependent inpatients (mean abstinence = 25 days) and 8 nonalcoholic control subjects on global and regional measures of cortical cerebral blood flow (CBF), and on neuropsychological measures. CBF was assessed using (123)iodoamphetamine (IMP) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) under conditions of behavioral challenge (Raven's Progressive Matrices), CBF and neuropsychological test performance were worse in the recently detoxified inpatients. Of greater interest, there was a dissociation in the long-term abstinent group, which, while neuropsychologically indistinguishable from controls, showed significantly decreased mean cortical IMP uptake. We conclude that there may be persistant physiologic abnormalities in long-term abstinent alcoholics who have achieved full behavioral recovery, Smoking on the day of SPECT scanning was also identified to be a significant confound to understanding CBF changes in alcoholism.