Crack-cocaine dependence and aging: effects on working memory

Abstract

Objective: To compare the working memory (WM) performance of young adult crack-cocaine dependent users, healthy older adults, and a control group of healthy young adults. Methods: A total of 77 female participants took part in this study: 26 young adult crack-cocaine dependent users (CRK), 19 healthy older adults (HO), and 32 healthy younger adults (HC). All participants completed the N-back verbal task. Results: A multivariate analysis of covariance was performed. The model included education, income, and medication use as covariates. A group effect (F 6,140 = 7.192, p o 0.001) was found. Post-hoc analyses showed that the performance of the CRK and HO groups was reduced compared to the HC group in two N-back conditions. No differences between the HO and CRK groups on WM performance were found. Conclusions: CRK participants perform similar to HO participants on a WM task, despite the wellknown effects of age on WM and the young age of CRK. These data point to a possible parallel between cognitive declines associated with crack use and developmental aging.

Crack cocaine addiction, early life stress and accelerated cellular aging among women

“…These findings support recent behavioral findings suggesting that crack cocaine use may confer a ''fast-track'' aging process (Sanvicente-Vieira, Kommers-Molina, De Nardi, Francke, & Grassi-Oliveira, 2016). Here we demonstrated that both crack cocaine groups (with and without a prior history of ELS) have shortened TL when compared with elderly women without mental disorders.…”

Is biological aging accelerated in drug addiction?

“…Pathologies commonly observed in the brain of aged individuals (e.g., primary age-related taupathy) indeed appear earlier in drug addicted individuals as compared to non-addicted individuals. Importantly, cognitive decline in addiction [56] may be attributed to hyperphosphorylated tau and p62-positive inclusions (neurodegeneration-related proteins) as reported with heroin use [57] or the accumulation of amyloid as reported in cocaine [58] and methamphetamine [59] users.…”

Telomere length in psychiatric disorders: Is it more than an ageing marker?

“…Psychiatric disorders and substance-use disorders are highly comorbid disorders that show accelerated ageing (Cheng et al 2013;Kochunov et al 2013;Anthes 2014;Koutsouleris et al 2014;Sanvicente-Vieira et al 2016). In regards to telomere shrinking, one review and two meta-analyses have summarised the studies of association between telomere length (TL) and psychiatric disorders (Colpo et al 2015;Lindqvist et al 2015;Darrow et al 2016), while no review has summarised the studies of substance-use disorders and TL or telomerase activity.…”