In understanding the consequences of alcoholism, drinking patterns are important considerations, i.e., the type, amount, and frequency of alcohol consumed; the age of onset of drinking; the severity and duration of the abuse or dependency; and the duration of alcohol abstinence. Repeated episodes of withdrawal also may be a risk factor for cognitive impairment and for decreased cognitive recovery due to neurotoxic lesions and excitotoxicity (Loeber et al., 2010). Studies of residual effects typically include participants who have abused alcohol for a long period of time (e.g., five years or more), as this permits the measurement of cumulative effects. Additionally, investigators interested in studying alcohol’s residual influences generally enroll participants who have been abstinent for a minimum of three to four weeks. This duration of abstinence is important for obtaining stable levels of performance after ethanol and its metabolites have been eliminated from the body (Oscar-Berman and Marinkovic, 2007). In this review, we include studies meeting that criterion unless specified otherwise.
