Alcoholics who do not develop Korsakoff’s syndrome still may show signs of cognitive impairment. In fact, the once commonly held view that those alcoholics without evidence of Korsakoff’s syndrome were cognitively “intact” (see Lishman 1990, p. 635) has been abandoned in light of accumulating evidence indicating that cognitive impairments (and changes in brain structure) can exist in alcoholics who do not exhibit obvious clinical signs of anterograde amnesia (i.e., the symptom that indicates that a person has Korsakoff’s syndrome). Researchers have gathered this evidence by developing refined and sensitive tests of psychological functioning. The tests are given to alcoholics and to normal control subjects who are matched for important characteristics, such as age, gender, education, and ethnic background, and their scores are compared. When statistical analyses reveal significant differences in performance between alcoholics and control groups on the tests, researchers conclude that the cognitive impairments are related to alcoholism.
