Mismatch negativity: No difference between treatment-naive alcoholics and controls

Background: Several studies have examined the mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked potential as a measure of a brain inhibitory deficit in alcoholics or those at risk for alcoholism. This study examined MMN in actively drinking treatment-naive alcohol-dependent individuals. This study examined the association of MMN with risk factors for alcoholism, postalcohol withdrawal hyperexcitability, and alcohol use variables. Methods: Electroencephalograms were gathered on 84 subjects (42 controls and 42 treatment-naive alcohol-dependent individuals) during a nonattending MMN experiment. Alcoholism family history density, the number of externalizing disorder symptoms, and psychological indices of deviance proneness served as measures of risk factors associated with the vulnerability to alcoholism. Alcohol use variables were used as measures of alcoholism severity. Results: There were no differences in the MMN integral, amplitude, or latency between control and treatment-naive alcohol-dependent subjects. There also were no significant associations of MMN measures with any of the measures of alcoholism vulnerability, with any of the alcohol use variables, or with the prevalence or severity of symptoms of postalcohol withdrawal hyperexcitability. Conclusions: Although there is a strong association between alcohol abuse and symptoms of disinhibition and deviance proneness, the MMN response does not offer any direct physiological evidence of this phenomenon.