Prospective memory functioning among ecstasy/polydrug users: evidence from the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT)

Abstract

Rationale: Prospective memory (PM) deficits in recreational drug users have been documented in recent years. However the assessment of PM has largely been restricted to self report measures that fail to capture the distinction between event based and time based PM.The aim of the present study is to address this limitation.Objectives: Extending our previous research we augmented the range laboratory measures of PM by employing the CAMPROMPT test battery to investigate the impact of illicit drug use on prospective remembering in a sample of cannabis only, ecstasy/polydrug and non users of illicit drugs, separating event and time based PM performance. We also administered measures of executive function and retrospective memory in order to establish whether ecstasy/polydrug deficits in PM were mediated by group differences in these processes.Results: Ecstasy/polydrug users performed significantly worse on both event and time based prospective memory tasks in comparison to both cannabis only and non user groups.Furthermore, it was found that across the whole sample, better retrospective memory and executive functioning was associated with superior PM performance. Nevertheless, this association did not mediate the drug-related effects that were observed. Consistent with our previous study, recreational use of cocaine was linked to PM deficits.Conclusions: PM deficits have again been found among ecstasy/polydrug users which appear to be unrelated to group differences in executive function and retrospective memory.However, the possibility that these are attributable to cocaine use cannot be excluded.Prospective memory (PM) involves remembering to execute a particular behaviour at some future point in time which may be in the short or long term, for example remembering to turn off the lights when leaving a room or remembering to attend a meeting, meet a friend or pass on a message. Self report measures of this construct have been developed (e.g., Crawford et al., 2005;Hannon et al., 1995) and in previous research from our laboratory, Fisk and co-workers have demonstrated apparent impairments on these measures among ecstasy/polydrug users (Montgomery & Fisk, 2007) and cannabis only users (Fisk & Montgomery, 2008). Other researchers have also reported deficits on self report PM measures among users of illicit drugs (Heffernan et al., 2001a;2001b;Rodgers et al., 2001; and studies from our own laboratory and elsewhere have revealed deficits among illicit drug users in laboratory measures of PM (Hadjiefthyvoulou et al., in press;Rendell et al., 2007a;Rendell et al., 2009).Unsurprisingly, given their role in supporting memory functions in general, evidence suggests that PM is dependent on medial temporal-hippocampal processes. For example, in a clinical group with medial temporal sclerosis, Adda et al. (2008) found that PM performance was impaired and that among those with left hemisphere lesions the degree of impairment was correlated with that in delayed (7 day) verbal recall on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task ...

Nicotine derived from the electronic cigarette improves time-based prospective memory in abstinent smokers

“…Better performance on event-based compared to time-based PM has previously been observed on the CAMPROMPT in smokers, non-smokers (Heffernan et al 2010), ecstasy/polydrug users or cannabis users (Hadjiefhyvoulou et al 2011) and is consistent with the multi-process model of PM which proposes relatively greater involvement of either strategic or automatic processing in the retrieval of intentions depending on the resource demands of the task and salience of external cues (Einstein and McDaniel 1990;McDaniel and Einstein, 2000). Thus the greater saliency of the cue in eventbased tasks is proposed to trigger automatic or reflexive retrieval of the intention with active engagement of attention.…”

The Impact of Marijuana Use on Memory in HIV-Infected Patients: A Comprehensive Review of the HIV and Marijuana Literatures

“…Four cross-sectional studies with average abstinence periods ranging from 2 weeks to 20 years concluded that former marijuana users did not demonstrate memory problems compared to controls [53–56]. A fifth cross-sectional study reported that impaired performance on verbal memory tasks persisted after 1 month of abstinence [57], but there were no checks to verify that that participants maintained abstinence.…”

“…Marijuana users also experience visual memory impairments [47, 49, 56, 58–60]. Of the ten studies that reported verbal and visual memory results separately, six found verbal memory impairment in the context of intact visual memory abilities [50–53, 57, 61], whereas none found impaired visual memory in the context of intact verbal memory.…”

Performance of Smokers with DSM-5 Tobacco Use Disorder in Time-Based Complex Prospective Memory

“…Over the past decade, PM in SU(D) has been investigated in a number of cross-sectional studies, several of which show reduced event-and time-based PM performance in alcohol dependence, methamphetamine dependence, binge drinking, smoking, and cannabis and multiple illegal drug use (Griffiths et al 2012;Heffernan, O'Neill, and Moss 2012;Hadjiefthyvoulou et al 2011;Iudicello et al 2011;Bartholomew, Holroyd, and Heffernan 2010;Heffernan, O'Neill, and Moss 2010).…”