Sandra Owens

Date of Award

7-22-1999

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Thomas Petros

Abstract

The literature on alcoholism has firmly established that impairments in cognition can remain for several weeks or longer in the detoxified alcoholic. Whether this impairment can impact relapse rates has been studied. In general, poor recovery on abstract reasoning, visual spatial tasks, and problem solving have been linked to higher relapse rates. Older age and less education can interact with cognitive impairments and increase relapse rates. Because the treatment modalities are dependent on listening and processing of information, there was a question as to what extent listening comprehension was impacted following detoxification, and to what degree deficits in this area in early treatment would impact relapse rates. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of listening comprehension deficits in recently detoxified alcoholics, and to examine whether these deficits impacted relapse after two months. Ninety-five alcohol dependent patients at the North Dakota State Hospital Chemical Dependency Unit were assessed with the following listening comprehension tests: Logical Memory I, (Wechsler Memory Scale), Woodcock-Johnson Listening Comprehension, and the Revised Token Test. Other neuropsychological tests were included. Twenty-nine employees served as a comparison group. The patients were administered the test battery several days after admission, and then administered the battery again several days before discharge. Telephone calls made two to three months after discharge determined the outcome measure of whether the alcoholic was abstinent or had relapsed. Results indicated that the alcoholics, test battery scores increased significantly from the first to second testing. Of the variables included in the study, the difference score of Listening Comprehension between the two testings discriminated between relapsers and nonrelapsers. None of the other test scores discriminated between relapsers and nonrelapsers. The results suggest that perhaps one type of listening comprehension test may be meaningful in predicting relapse rates and may be of interest for future studies. If this test proves to be a valid indicator, alcoholic patients with this unique deficit could be identified and their treatment augmented with other information modalities.

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