Scientists have proposed that cognitive changes in alcoholics develop progressively (and are correlated with the duration and degree of a person’s alcohol use), and, thus, impairments in cognitive functioning can be represented along a continuum (Ryback 1971). The continuum encompasses, at one end, abstainers and social drinkers who exhibit no signs of cognitive impairment and, at the other end, alcoholics with Korsakoff’s syndrome who exhibit severe deficits in memory and other cognitive functions. Chronic alcoholics who do not suffer from Korsakoff’s syndrome but who exhibit signs of mild to moderate cognitive impairment are placed along this continuum between the two extremes. This has come to be referred to as the “continuum hypothesis” and suggests that chronic alcoholics should display at least some of the same cognitive changes present in people with Korsakoff’s syndrome (Ryan and Butters 1980).
