Thesis defense Arie Wester (Donders Series 152)

21 March 2014

Promotors: Prof.dr. R. Kessels, Prof.dr. J. Egger

Assessment of everyday memory in patients with alcohol-related cognitive disorders using the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test

The thesis examined the applicability of the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) in alcohol-related cognitive disorders. The performance of patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome on the original RBMT was examined, and the performance on the original RBMT was compared with a widely used word-list learning test, the Dutch version of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), to establish the discriminative power of both memory tests in distinguishing between different patient groups with alcohol-related cognitive impairment. Also, the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test-Third Edition (RBMT-3) were examined. Furthermore, it was studied whether this version was an improvement over the original RBMT, and the applicability of the RBMT-3 and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in patients with alcohol-related cognitive disorders was examined.

In this thesis, an overview was presented of the possible cognitive consequences in alcohol-use disorders, followed by empirical studies using the original RBMT and the recently developed Dutch version of the RBMT-3. For the first time, a number of studies are presented concerning the feasibility of the RBMT-3 in the assessment of alcohol-related cognitive disorders. An improvement over the original RBMT, the third edition seems to be a reliable, valid and useful clinical research tool for the assessment and treatment of patients with alcohol-related cognitive disorders.