Long-term abstinence from alcohol may resolve many, but not all, neurocognitive deficits, finds a study by U.S. researchers.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine performed a number of neuropsychological assessments on 96 participants, divided into two groups: 48 long-term abstinent alcoholics and 48 age-matched “controls” who either drank lightly or not at all.

The alcoholics were abstinent from six months to 13 years, for an average of 6.7 years. Performance was measured in nine domains: abstraction/cognitive flexibility, attention, auditory working memory, immediate memory, delayed memory, psychomotor function, reaction time, spatial processing and verbal skills.

“We found that the cognitive and mental abilities of middle-aged alcoholics who had been abstinent for six months to 13 years are indistinguishable from those of age and gender comparable non-alcoholics, with the possible exception of spatial processing abilities,” says corresponding author study George Fein. “Recovered functions would include short- and long-term memory, planning, learning, comprehension, etc. In other words, they would be able to support a normal home, work and social life; these people should be able to function cognitively normally.”

The findings are published in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.