The negative influence of chronic alcohol abuse on acute cognitive recovery after a traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Objective

Cognitive recovery after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be negatively affected by a prior alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study aims to compare the cognitive recovery of patients who had comorbid TBI and AUD relative to TBI alone and investigate the influence of blood alcohol level (BAL) at hospital admission on this recovery.

Method

The sample consisted of 42 patients who had sustained a TBI (mild or moderate) and had an AUD diagnosis (TBI+AUD), and 42 patients who had sustained a TBI alone (TBI). The Brief Cognitive Exam in Traumatology (EXACT), designed to evaluate cognitive functions in the acute phase of TBI was administered (± 2 weeks post-injury).

Results

After controlling for BAL at admission, the TBI+AUD group had a lower EXACT total score compared to the TBI group. The negative influence of age on the results was more pronounced in the TBI+AUD group. The number of intoxicated patients at admission was also higher in this group, although there was no correlation between BAL at admission and cognitive outcome.

Conclusion

The presence of an AUD diagnosis seems to exert a greater negative influence on cognitive recovery following a mild/moderate TBI than BAL at admission, especially in older patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• alcohol abuse
• blood alcohol level
• cognitive recovery
• acute care

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Hugues Leduc, M.Sc. and Jean Paquet, Ph. D. for advice on data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.