Assessment of cognitive functioning in poly-substance abusers

Abstract

Neuropsychological deficits of memory and spatial perception have been associated with substance abuse. The present study assessed the degree to which verbal abstraction is impaired in substance abusers because this function typically is reduced in diffuse cerebral disorders. Test scores of 100 consecutively admitted substance‐abusing patients indicated that performance on the Similarities test of the WAIS was actually higher than Vocabulary scores. This finding was replicated with the WAIS‐R on a second sample of 100 patients who demonstrated impaired memory and psychomotor speed. These findings indicated that verbal abstraction was unimpaired in two large samples of poly‐substance abusers. Further, the superiority of Similarities over Vocabulary scores suggests that in poly‐substance abusers, Similarities scores may be a better index of premorbid intellectual competence than the more typically used Vocabulary scores.

Avaliação multidimensional do usuário de drogas e a Escala de Gravidade de Dependência

“…As primeiras publicações sobre como avaliar um usuário de álcool e outras drogas [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] datam da década de 1960, porém apenas a partir dos anos 1990 é que os elementos essenciais relacionados à dependência química foram melhor elucidados e organizados . A maioria dos estudos, entretanto, refere-se a populações específi cas, não abordando a questão de forma mais ampla, didática e sistematizada [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] .…”

Effect of ecstasy use on neuropsychological function: a study in Hong Kong

“…Curran and Travill 1997;Morgan 1998Morgan , 1999Rodgers 2000;Wareing et al 2000;Bhattachary and Powell 2001;Verkes et al 2001). In light of the effect of consuming alcohol (Talland 1965;Tarter 1976;Kapur and Butters 1977;Parker and Noble 1977;Parsons and Farr 1981;MacVane et al 1982;De Renzi et al 1984;Shelton et al, 1984;Walsh 1985;Ryan and Butters 1986;Grant 1987;Bowden 1988;Akshoomoff et al 1989), other drugs such as marijuana (Weingartner et al 1972;Darley et al 1973;Braff et al 1981) and cocaine (Washton and Stone 1984;Mittenberg and Motta 1993), and multiple drugs (Grant et al 1978a,b;McCaffrey et al 1988;Sweeney et al 1989) on neuropsychological performance, the extent to which concomitant alcohol and other drugs affect the findings of previous studies regarding ecstasy usage and neuropsychological performance is largely unknown. GouzoulisMayfrank and colleagues (2000) showed that there were distinct neuropsychological profiles for users of both MDMA and cannabis that were different from that for users of cannabis only.…”

The National Adult Reading Test as a measure of premorbid IQ in schizophrenia

“…Performance on the Vocabulary subtest of the WAIS±R has been traditionally thought of as the single best indicator of original intellectual ability (Yates, 1954). There is, however, considerable debate in the literature as to which of the Wechsler subtests`hold ' best over time with diåerent studies providing evidence in favour of Vocabulary, Picture Completion (McFie, 1975) and Similarities (Sweeney, Meisel, Walsh, & Castrovinci, 1989). Lezack (1988) points out that vocabulary tests in the vein of the WAIS±R may not provide good estimates of general intellectual ability even among normal controls, except in those participants where there are superior verbal skills.…”