A Study Of Prospective Memory In The Inpatients With Abstinent Male Alcohol Dependence

Objective To investigate the event-based prospective memory(EBPM)andtime-based prospective memory(TBPM)in the inpatients with abstinent alcoholdependence and the relationships between prospective memory and symptoms. Toanalyze the relationships between prospective memory and executive function inpatients.Methods32male patients with alcohol dependence and30normal controls matched byage, education,HAMD and HAMA were assessed with a neuropsychological battery oftests including EBPM and TBPM tasks. The functioning of prefrontal lobe wasmeasured by the Stroop test, digital span test and digital sign test. The followingexclusion criteria were also fulfilled by all participates:(a) no demonstrable braindisease (i.e. no loss of consciousness nor any history of neurological conditions such asepilepsy, brain injury, or head trauma);(b) no history of depressive disorder, anxietydisorders, schizophrenia; and (c) no evidence of other substance (excepting tobacco)abuse.Results A statistically significant in EBPM was observed between patients withalcohol dependence and normal controls (3.91±0.69vs.4.47±0.63，t=-3.348，P<0.0l)and the same result in TBPM (3.28±0.77vs.4.20±0.66，t=-5.032，P<0.0l). Thedifferences between groups for digital span test and digital sgin test scores weresignificant.(t=-2.580，P=0.012、t=-5.032，P=0.005、t=-5.327，P＜0.001）. Comparedwith normal controls, patients with alcohol dependence took longer time(P<0.001)and their score was lower (P<0.01) in the C part of stroop color-word test; patients withalcohol dependence took longer time than normal controls (P<0.01), but the scoredifference was not statistically significant (P>0.05) in the B part,and the difference in Apart was either(P>0.05).Particularly,there was a significant difference between the twogroups in stroop effect(P<0.01).The positively correlate was showed between theduration of abstinence and EBPM (r=0.444，P<0.05), TBPM (r=0.423，P<0.05) in thepatients. The correlation between TBPM and two of the Stroop color-word test subscalescores (interference condition and stroop effect) was significant.（r=-0.479，P<0.01）Conclusions The results suggest abstinent alcohol dependence patients impairs bothEBPM，TBPM and executive function. PM shows correlated with duration of abstinencemoderately in the patients. The correlation between TBPM and two of the Stroopcolor-word test subscale scores (interference condition and stroop effect) was significant.Executive function were important reason for the impairments of s prefrontal cortex.The study also supported that impaired PM in abstinent alcohol dependence patientswas probably correlation with the abnormalities of prefrontal.