Color Vision Defects in Alcoholism–II

Summary Recent data from Santiago, Chile, in which alcoholics and their female relatives showed higher incidences of overall color blindness and of blue-yellow color blindness than was seen in controls has been interpreted to support a genetic association between alcoholism and color blindness. In this study, Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Color Vision Tests were taken by 106 male and 16 female alcoholics before hospital treatment for alcoholism. Subsequent tests were taken approximately one week later, and again approximately six weeks later. Correlation analyses showed that deficiences in overall color discrimination ability were correlated with abnormal liver tests and with inferior performance on psychological tests suggesting that color vision defects are like other partially reversible biochemical and behavioral disorders seen in alcoholics and result from chronic alcohol abuse. Additional support for this interpretation came from the improvement seen in overall color discrimination ability during and after hospitalization. The higher incidence of blue-yellow color vision defect seen in the Chile study was not seen in this study and may be due to differences in the backgrounds and environment of the patient populations.