Risk-Taking on Tests Sensitive to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction Predicts Early Relapse in Alcohol Dependency: A Pilot Study

Twenty one patients in a residential rehabilitation program fulfilling International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD) criteria for alcohol dependence syndrome were recruited. On neuropsychological tests, alcohol dependent patients relapsed early if they made choices governed by immediate gain irrespective of later outcome, which is consistent with dysfunctional ventromedial-prefrontal cortex mediating the inability to resist the impulse to drink despite ultimately deleterious effects. The authors suggest that the use of neuropsychological tasks of decision making may have several advantages over more conventional strategies for studying alcoholism.