Neuropsychological performance of recently abstinent alcoholics and cocaine abusers

To examine possible influences of premorbid and comorbid factors on the neuropsychological test performance of recently abstinent (3–5 weeks) drug abusers, we studied 24 alcoholics, 23 cocaine abusers, and 22 healthy controls of comparable age and education. Both alcoholics and cocaine abusers perfo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Drug and alcohol dependence Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 247 - 253
Main Authors:	Beatty, William W, Katzung, Vickie M, Moreland, Valerie J, Nixon, Sara J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01-03-1995 Elsevier Science
Subjects:	Abstinence Abuse Addictive behaviors Adult Adult and adolescent clinical studies Alcohol Alcoholism - psychology Alcoholism - rehabilitation Biological and medical sciences Cocaine Cocaine - adverse effects Drug addiction Ethanol - adverse effects Female Humans Intelligence - drug effects Male Medical sciences Mental Recall - drug effects Middle Aged Neuropsychological functioning Neuropsychological performance Neuropsychological Tests Pattern Recognition, Visual - drug effects Problem Solving - drug effects Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychomotor Performance - drug effects Psychopathology. Psychiatry Reaction Time - drug effects Substance abusers Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - diagnosis Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - psychology Substance-Related Disorders - diagnosis Substance-Related Disorders - psychology Substance-Related Disorders - rehabilitation Verbal Learning - drug effects Alcohol Cocaine Abuse Neuropsychological performance Human Drug addiction Alcoholism Neuropsychological test Psychometrics Cognition Abstinence Concomitant disease Premorbid intelligence Mental disorder Antecedent Comparative study
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Summary:	To examine possible influences of premorbid and comorbid factors on the neuropsychological test performance of recently abstinent (3–5 weeks) drug abusers, we studied 24 alcoholics, 23 cocaine abusers, and 22 healthy controls of comparable age and education. Both alcoholics and cocaine abusers performed significantly more poorly than controls on most measures of learning and memory, problem solving and abstraction and perceptual-motor speed, but the groups did not differ on the measure of sustained attention. Correlational analyses revealed no significant relationships between measures of childhood and residual hyperactivity and neuropsychological performance; scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were related only to performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The findings indicate that abuse of cocaine or alcohol is associated with deficits on neuropsychological tests which cannot be attributed to specific premorbid or comorbid factors such as depression or childhood or residual attention deficit disorder.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	0376-8716 1879-0046
DOI:	10.1016/0376-8716(94)01072-S