Thirty-nine detoxified elderly alcoholics (mean age = 65.85) completed a co
mprehensive assessment designed to identify individuals meeting DSM-TV crit
eria for alcohol-related dementia. Ten subjects meeting criteria (mean age
= 69.8; mean Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] = 25.1) were compared to
the 29 nondemented alcoholics (mean age = 64.5; mean MMSE = 27.8), 9 patien
ts with Alzheimer's disease (mean age = 73.4; mean MMSE = 22.3), and 15 con
trol subjects (mean age = 70.8; mean MMSE = 28). Comparison of neuropsychol
ogical test scores revealed several statistically significant differences.
Furthermore, the overall pattern of test performance between the two dement
ed groups was different. Alzheimer's patients were more impaired on confron
tation naming, recognition memory, animal fluency, and orientation. Alcohol
dementia subjects were more impaired than controls on initial letter fluen
cy, fine motor control, and free recall. However, alcohol dementia subjects
did not differ from controls on tests of verbal recognition memory. This s
tudy suggests that it is possible to clinically differentiate the cognitive
deficits of alcohol-related dementia from typical Alzheimer's disease. How
ever, the results are preliminary and are based on small sample sizes so sh
ould be interpreted with caution.