Long-term abstinence from alcohol can help alcoholics recover from the damaging effects of drinking, including getting back some of their cognitive efficiency, says a study.

Previous studies have found that many adults with protracted histories of alcohol dependence may have neuropsychological deficits in cognitive efficiency, executive functioning, perceptual motor skills, nonverbal memory, visuospatial abilities and gait and balance.

A new study by Edith Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, and others looked at alcoholics who have been sober for six months to 13 years.

They found that that long-term abstinent alcoholics can recover many of their neuro-cognitive deficits, except for spatial-processing abilities, reported science portal EurekAlert.

"The nature of alcoholism as a dynamic condition is largely under-appreciated by most people, including clinicians," Sullivan said.

"Alcoholics may have periods of abstinence, during which time they give their nervous system time for repair.

"We found that the cognitive and mental abilities of middle-aged alcoholics who had been abstinent for six months to 13 years are indistinguishable from those of age and gender comparable non-alcoholics with possible exception of spatial processing abilities," one of the researchers said.

Recovered functions would include short- and long-term memory, planning, learning, comprehension, etc. In other words, they would be able to support a normal home, work and social life. "These people should be able to function cognitively normally," Sullivan said.

These findings provide hope for recovering alcoholics, and can be used to encourage abstinence from alcohol, the scientists said.