Studies that have been done before in the area confirm that a prolonged history of alcohol dependency often results in "neuropsychological deficits in cognitive efficiency, executive functioning, perceptual motor skills, nonverbal memory, visuospatial abilities and gait and balance."
The new study done by Edith Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine looked at the lives of alcoholics who have been sober from a period of six months to 13 years.
Scientific portal EurekAlert reports, long-term abstinent alcoholics are able to recover from many of their "neuro-cognitive deficits, except for spatial-processing abilities."
Sullivan told the Indo Asian News Service, "The nature of alcoholism as a dynamic condition is largely under-appreciated by most people, including clinicians."
"Alcoholics may have periods of abstinence, during which time they give their nervous system time for repair."
One of the researchers on the team said, "We found that the cognitive and mental abilities of middle-aged alcoholics who had been abstinent for six months to 13 years are indistinguishable from those of age and gender comparable non-alcoholics with possible exception of spatial processing abilities."
Sullivan reiterated, "These people should be able to function cognitively normally." Recovered functions would include the following: "short- and long-term memory, planning, learning, comprehension, etc. In other words, they would be able to support a normal home, work and social life."
The scientists confirmed that these findings are significant because they provide hope for those alcoholics who wish to healthier life-styles; moreover, the results can also be used to encourage and promote abstinence from alcohol.
