Alcohol Abuse and Perceptual-Motor Dysfunction: The Occupational Therapist’s Role

A review of the literature on perceptual-motor deficits in alcoholic patients is presented. Studies show that there is a relationship between perceptual-motor dysfunction and alcoholism. Because occupational therapists treat perceptual-motor deficits in other kinds of patients, they may have a role in treating these deficits in alcoholic patients as well. To assume such a role, however, occupational therapists must document a relationship between dysfunction in activities of daily living and perceptual-motor dysfunction in the alcoholic patient. Unless such a relationship is established, treatment of perceptual-motor dysfunction in alcoholic patients would not fall within the scope of occupational therapy.