Personality impairment in alcoholism. Its relation to regional cerebral blood flow and psychometric performance.

Abstract

Regional cerebral blood flow [CBF] was assessed in 31 hospitalized men alcoholics (mean age 42) who had been drinking excessively for a mean of 17 yr. Compared with a normal population the alcoholics had reduced flow in the grey and white matter; no differences were found in the 10 min flow or the relative weight of the grey matter. The results were correlated with the number of symptoms of 3 psychiatric rating scales: defense (e.g., guarded attitude, rationalization), low vitality (e.g., flaccidity of movements) and emotional deficiency (e.g., poor and shallow affective reactions) and with the results of various psychometric tests. The 3 psychiatric scales were homogeneous. No significant differences were found in BF between patients with many or few symptoms on the 3 psychiatric scales, although the patients with many symptoms of low vitality tended to have reduced CBF. The latter also had impaired performance on the Serial Color Word Test, the Cronholm-Molander Paired Associates Test, the Benton Visual Retention Test and the Crawford Pin Test, while the rest of the patients scored generally in the normal range or slightly below. The reduced BF appears to be an index of lowered metabolism due to primary reduction of the cerebral neuronal functional level, which may be due to the toxic effect of alcohol, malnutrition or head trauma.