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Comments on "cognitive functioning in men social drinkers; a replication study".

In this issue, MacVane et al. (1) describe a study of 106 men social drinkers from the Boston area. They report that recent alcohol use is significantly and negatively associated with sober cognitive performance. This study independently confirms what my colleagues and I reported in earlier studies (2-4). Now the challenge is to understand the nature of the relationship between alcohol use and cognition. MacVane and coworkers raise questions concerning their findings and urge that findings in this area be viewed with great caution until further research is available. They ask: What does a correlation between increased alcohol use and decreased sober cognitive performance mean? Was the association due to a few alcoholic individuals who were disguised as social drinkers? Were some of the subjects intoxicated when they performed the cognitive tests? I shall address these and other questions in this commentary with the hope that new research can proceed in the most fruitful directions.