Cognitive performance and liver function among recently abstinent alcohol abusers.

It has frequently been suggested that some of the enduring subtle cognitive impairments seen in sober alcohol-dependent persons may be a result of subclinical liver dysfunction. Cognitive performance and liver function among 85 recently abstinent alcohol-dependent persons were assessed by means of a neuropsychological examination and the GGT test of liver function. Unlike some previous studies, no relationships were found between the two areas of functioning. It is argued that lack of statistical power did not account for the failure to find an association between the two domains. The proposition that residual cognitive impairment in abstinent alcoholic persons is (partly) mediated by earlier liver dysfunction rests on slight empirical foundations and remains speculative.