Journal Article

Effect of alcohol use disorder family history on cognitive function

Franck, Johan, Khemiri, Lotfi, Jayaram-Lindström, Nitya

2022

Overview

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with cognitive deficits but little is known to what degree this is caused by genetically influenced traits, i.e. endophenotypes, present before the onset of the disorder. The aim of the current study was to investigate to what degree family history (FH) of AUD is associated with cognitive functions. Case-control cross-sectional study at an outpatient addiction research clinic. Treatment-seeking AUD patients (n = 106) were compared to healthy controls (HC; n = 90), matched for age and sex. The HC group was further subdivided into AUD FH positive (FH+; n = 47) or negative (FH-; n = 39) based on the Family Tree Questionnaire. Participants underwent psychiatric and substance use assessments, completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and performed a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests assessing response inhibition, decision making, attention, working memory, and emotional recognition. Compared to HC, AUD patients exhibited elevated self-rated impulsivity (p < 0.001; d = 0.62), as well as significantly poorer response inhibition (p = 0.001; d = 0.51), attention (p = 0.021; d = 0.38) and information gathering in decision making (p = 0.073; d = 0.34). Similar to AUD patients, FH+ individuals exhibited elevated self-rated impulsivity (p = 0.096; d = 0.46), and in addition significantly worse future planning capacity (p < 0.001; d = 0.76) and prolonged emotional recognition response time (p = 0.010; d = 0.60) compared to FH-, while no other significant differences were found between FH+ and FH-. Elevated impulsivity, poor performance in future planning and emotional processing speed may be potential cognitive endophenotypes in AUD. These cognitive domains represent putative targets for prevention strategies and treatment of AUD.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Acknowledgment / Addictions / Alcohol abuse / Alcohol related disorders / Alcohol use / Alcoholism / Alcoholism - genetics / Attention / Bipolar disorder / Cocaine / Cognition / Cognition - physiology / Cognitive ability / Cognitive functioning / Cognitive impairment / Cross-Sectional Studies / Decision making / Disorders / Emotion recognition / Emotions / Executive function / Families & family life / Genetics / Health services utilization / Help seeking behavior / Humans / Impulsive behavior / Impulsivity / Information gathering / Medical treatment / Mental disorders / Narcotics / Neuropsychological assessment / Neuropsychology / Original Article / Outpatient treatment / Patients / Prevention / Psychosis / Questionnaires / Reaction time / Recognition / Response inhibition / Responses / Self evaluation / Short term memory / Substance abuse / Substance use / Substance use disorder