Correlates of Alcoholic Blackout Experience

Correlates of Alcoholic Blackout Experience

11

in the original coding. However, blackout is a phenomenon that does not occur
in all heavy drinkers/alcoholics and a presence/absence measure is a
defensible index of susceptibility. It is also possible that relationships between
blackout and cognition might have been better demonstrated through more
extensive and sophisticated examinations of cognitive functioning rather than
the relatively brief and clinical measures used in this study. A further
limitation is the relatively small number for the analysis of cognitive variables
which would not have maximised power.

Nonetheless the data presented here suggest that alcoholic blackouts
and more enduring alcohol-related cognitive impairment are not closely
related phenomenona. Blackouts are a remarkably under researched
phenomenon and the author believes with Lishman [1] that “correlates of
individual vulnerability (to blackout) remain an important question for further
investigation.” (p. 595).

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