Although cognitive and motor deficits have been observed in upwards of 50% of alcoholics, not all alcoholics demonstrate measurable cognitive impairment (Fein, Torres, Price, & Di Sclafani, 2006). Furthermore, severity of cognitive deficits in alcoholics range from mild, often referred to as “uncomplicated alcoholism,” to severe including alcohol-related dementia when accompanied by impairment in 2 or more cognitive domains with functional compromise (DSM-IV) or the profound anterograde amnesia characteristic of Korsakoff’s syndrome (for reviews see Fama, Pitel, and Sullivan, 2012; Kopelman, 1995). It has been debated whether the severity of alcohol-related cognitive impairment is best viewed on a continuum or whether different patterns of impairment are categorically distinct (Bowden, 1990; Pitel et al., 2007; Ryback, 1971).
