Brain agingHumansPreprint

Lifetime alcohol use disorder speeds cognitive decline

In model projections, lifetime disorder added an estimated 7.1 years of cognitive aging at age 60 and 13.8 years at age 75.

Figure 1. Plots of estimated cognitive score by age, based on regression model estimates from Table 2.Plots of estimated cognitive score by age, based on regression model estimates from Table 2.Hartz et al.

medRxiv4 Oct 2026, 07:25 BST

In a cohort of 1,421 middle-aged and older human adults followed for an average of 25.0 years, a lifetime history of alcohol use disorder was associated with steeper cognitive decline. Researchers analyzed data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, assessing cognitive performance across total, fluid, and crystallized composite scores.

While baseline cognitive scores were similar between groups, lifetime alcohol use disorder was significantly associated with faster age-related decline in total cognitive scores (interaction estimate = -0.092) and fluid cognitive scores (interaction estimate = -0.13). Crystallized cognition showed no significant interaction with age. Current drinking patterns, including past-year status and drinks per week, did not interact with age to alter cognitive trajectories.

Why it matters

These results indicate that cumulative historical alcohol exposure, rather than current intake alone, may interact with aging to accelerate cognitive decline prior to clinical dementia.

Caveats

The findings come from an observational study released as a preprint that has not yet undergone peer review. Furthermore, the reported years of added cognitive aging were derived from model projections rather than directly observed endpoints.