Executive Dysfunction Related to Binge Drinking in Ischemic Stroke

• Published in: Cognitive and behavioral neurology Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 23 - 32
• Main Authors: Laari, Siiri P K, Kauranen, Tatu V, Turunen, Katri E A, Mustanoja, Satu M, Tatlisumak, Turgut, Poutiainen, Erja T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-03-2020
• Subjects: adolescents; alcohol; alcohol-consumption; Behavioral Sciences; binge drinking; brain; cognition; cognitive performance; disorders; drinkers; executive functions; heavy drinking; impulsivity; ischemic stroke; Neurologi; Neurology; Neurosciences & Neurology; risk; use; young
• ISSN: 1543-3633; 1543-3641; 1543-3633
• DOI: 10.1097/WNN.0000000000000222

Recent evidence has shown that cognitive dysfunction is associated with a history of binge drinking in adolescents who do not have an alcohol use disorder. Most previous studies with adults, however, have failed to show a link between cognitive dysfunction and subdiagnostic binge drinking, nor have any studies investigated the additive cognitive effect of binge drinking to ischemic stroke.
To examine whether a pattern of cognitive dysfunction, especially executive and memory dysfunction, in patients with a first-ever ischemic stroke is associated with a history of subdiagnostic binge drinking.
We studied 206 first-ever ischemic stroke patients (18-65 years) and 50 healthy, demographically comparable adults-both groups with no alcohol use disorder. After exclusion by matching, 189 patients and 39 healthy participants were included in our study (228 participants). The binge-drinking group included 76 participants; the non-binge-drinking group included 152. A multivariate analysis of covariance was used to compare nine cognitive functions between the two groups, with age, education, and stroke severity used as covariates.
Binge drinking had a significant negative effect on executive functions (P<0.001). The non-binge-drinking group outperformed the binge-drinking group on the Stroop Test (P=0.001), Trail Making Test (P=0.002), and a phonemic fluency test (P=0.005). The Binge×Stroke Severity interaction (P=0.037) indicated that a history of binge drinking increased the negative effect of stroke on executive functions.
Subdiagnostic binge drinking may exacerbate the adverse effects of ischemic stroke on executive dysfunction.