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Effects of Long Term Drinking

A man walks into a bar…

And the barman says “why the long face?” According to a recent report it may be because alcoholism has affected his ability to recognise jokes.

As a sense of humour is the one thing most drinkers pride themselves on, this is concerning news. They may have a beer-belly, a red nose and more gaps than teeth, but they sure are darned good fun, right?

A German study suggests that in the case of long-term problem drinkers, it is often not a laughing matter.

It assessed 29 alcoholic patients at a clinic in Bochum, testing their mood, intellectual ability, memory, psychomotor skills, and capacity to appreciate jokes.

The subjects were given a variety of jokes, and asked to choose the appropriate punch line from a list of alternatives.

For example, and purely in the interest of furthering your scientific understanding:

If the patients read: ‘A women walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre.’

They would then have to pick ‘So he gave her one’ from a list of options.

Or alternatively if the leader was: ‘A man walks into a bar with jump lead under his arm.’

They would then have to circle: ‘And the barman says: “you can come in, but don’t start anything.”’

What was less amusing were the results of the experiment. Amongst a control group of healthy participants, 92 per cent were able to correctly identify the punch line.

When the problems drinker were shown the same jokes though, only 68 per cent were able to provide the right response.

The authors of the report claimed that people who scored highly in this test tended to integrate well with others in social situations.

Conversely, those who fared badly – mostly the problem drinkers - struggled with interpersonal relationships.

They felt that these social problems were likely to hinder their rehabilitation and make recovery more difficult.

Clearly heavy drinking affects more than just your liver and your bank balance.

Everyone laughs when a brain walks into a bar and the barman says: ‘I’m not serving you, you’re out of you’re skull.’ It is less funny when it is a real drinker walking in.