Psychophysical Evaluation of Visual Functions of Ex-Alcoholic Subjects After Prolonged Abstinence

Abstract

Chronic alcohol abuse can lead to a brain damages, and the health status of alcoholics even after a long-term alcohol abstinence is a public health concern. The present study investigated the color vision and spatial luminance contrast sensitivity of a group of 17 ex-alcoholics (46.3 ± 6.7 years old) in long-term alcohol abstinence after having been previously under alcohol dependence for many years. We also investigated the association of impaired psychophysical performance in different tests we applied. The mean time of alcohol consumption was 16.9 ± 5.1 years and the mean abstinence period was 12.4 ± 8.5 years. Achromatic vision of all subjects was evaluated using spatial luminance contrast sensitivity function (CSF) test and color vision was evaluated using Mollon–Reffin color discrimination test (MR) and the Farnsworth–Munsell 100 hue arrangement test (FM100). Relative to controls, the spatial luminance contrast sensitivity was lower in 10/17 of the ex-alcoholic subjects. In the color vision tests, 11/16 ex-alcoholic subjects had impaired results compared to controls in the FM100 test and 13/14 subjects had color vision deficits measured in the MR test. Fourteen subjects performed all visual tests, three subjects had impaired results for all tests, seven subjects had impaired results in two tests, three subjects had visual deficit in one test, and one had normal results for all tests. The results showed the existence of functional deficits in achromatic and chromatic vision of subjects with history of chronic alcoholism after long abstinence. Most subjects had altered result in more than one test, especially in the color vision tests. The present investigation suggests that the damage in visual functions produced by abusive alcohol consumption is not reversed after long term alcohol abstinence.

Magnocellular and Parvocellular Mediated Luminance Contrast Discrimination in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

“…Either way, be the alterations subcortical or/and cortical, the absence of group differences in the attentional control tasks precludes a more general explanation in terms of reduced attentional resources rather than impoverished perceptual processing, confirming the presence of low‐level visual deficits in SAUD. Importantly, these visual deficits could be persistent as reduced contrast sensitivity for Gabor patches at low spatial frequencies (0.5 and 0.8 cpd) has been documented in individuals with SAUD abstinent for more than 10 years (Martins et al, 2019). These changes, which mainly involve the MC pathway, were accompanied by color vision impairments, suggesting a combination of long‐term MC and PC deficits that converge with our findings.…”