Visual & Verbal Learning Deficits in Veterans with Alcohol & Substance Use Disorders

Highlights

• Studied visual and verbal learning in Veterans with substance use disorders.
• Compared alcohol abusers to abusers of cocaine and opiates.
• Deficits in verbal learning were specific to Veterans with alcohol use disorders.
• Visual learning was less impaired for both abusers of alcohol and other substances.
• Alcohol treatment programs should not use strategies that rely on verbal learning.

Abstract

Background

This study examined visual and verbal learning in the early phase of recovery for 48 Veterans with alcohol use (AUD) and substance use disorders (SUD, primarily cocaine and opiate abusers). Previous studies have demonstrated visual and verbal learning deficits in AUD, however little is known about the differences between AUD and SUD on these domains. Since the DSM-5 specifically identifies problems with learning in AUD and not in SUD, and problems with visual and verbal learning have been more prevalent in the literature for AUD than SUD, we predicted that people with AUD would be more impaired on measures of visual and verbal learning than people with SUD.

Methods

Participants were enrolled in a comprehensive rehabilitation program and were assessed within the first 5 weeks of abstinence. Verbal learning was measured using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) and visual learning was assessed using the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (BVMT).

Results

Results indicated significantly greater decline in verbal learning on the HVLT across the three learning trials for AUD participants but not for SUD participants (F = 4.653, df = 48, p = 0.036). Visual learning was less impaired than verbal learning across learning trials for both diagnostic groups (F = 0.197, df = 48, p = 0.674); there was no significant difference between groups on visual learning (F = 0.401, df = 14, p = 0.538).

Discussion

Older Veterans in the early phase of recovery from AUD may have difficulty learning new verbal information. Deficits in verbal learning may reduce the effectiveness of verbally-based interventions such as psycho-education.

Purchase full article at:  http://goo.gl/FpEx2X

By:  Morris D. Bell, Nicholas A. Vissicchio^, Andrea J. Weinstein

Affiliations

• Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 300 George Street, Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA

• Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, 950 Campbell Ave, West Haven, CT 06516, USA

Correspondence

• Corresponding author at: VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Psychology Service 116B, 950 Campbell Avenue, West Haven, CT 06516, USA. Tel.: +1 2039325711; fax: +1 2039374735.

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv_insight

And:        http://twitter.com/Prison_Health