Neurocognitive effects of alcohol hangover

Alcohol hangover is characterized by adverse physical and mental effects that occur the next morning after the intake of toxic doses of alcohol. One of the more relevant functional consequences of hangover is the cognitive and subjective impairment, which could be related to the high socioeconomic costs of alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, few studies have addressed the study of neurocognitive and subjective effects of hangover. The systematic and exhaustive study of neurocognitive and subjective effects has not been done. In the present work we briefly review the hangover impact, not only in the objective execution of attention, psychomotricity and memory tasks, but in the subjective state of the subjects as well. Moreover, we also highlight the methodology difficulties to study neurocognitive effects of hangover and suggest several aspects to take into account in future investigations. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.