Cognitive function during early abstinence from opioid dependence: a comparison to age, gender, and verbal intelligence matched controls

BACKGROUND: Individuals with opioid dependence have cognitive deficits during abuse period in attention, working memory, episodic memory, and executive function. After protracted abstinence consistent cognitive deficit has been found only in executive function. However, few studies have explored cognitive function during first weeks of abstinence. The purpose of this study was to study cognitive function of individuals with opioid dependence during early abstinence. It was hypothesized that cognitive deficits are pronounced immediately after peak withdrawal symptoms have passed and then partially recover. METHODS: Fifteen patients with opioid dependence and fifteen controls matched for, age, gender, and verbal intelligence were tested with a cognitive test battery When patients performed worse than controls correlations between cognitive performance and days of withdrawal, duration of opioid abuse, duration of any substance abuse, or opioid withdrawal symptom inventory score (Short Opiate Withdrawal Scale) were analyzed. RESULTS: Early abstinent opioid dependent patients performed statistically significantly worse than controls in tests measuring complex working memory, executive function, and fluid intelligence. Their complex working memory and fluid intelligence performances correlated statistically significantly with days of withdrawal. CONCLUSION: The results indicate a rather general neurocognitive deficit in higher order cognition. It is suggested that cognitive deficit during early abstinence from opioid dependence is related to withdrawal induced neural dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex and is partly transient

Impulse control differences between abstinent heroin users and matched controls

Objective: Heroin use has been associated with increased impulsive behaviour. This study examined the lasting effect of heroin use on impulse control in a group of ex-heroin addicts. Research design and method: Twenty-eight men, 14 ex-heroin addicts and 14 matched controls, participated in this study. The impulse control ability between the two groups was compared. Each participant was individually interviewed for demographic data and testing of their impulse control ability using the Porteus Maze Test. Results: The findings indicated that the ex-heroin addicts performed significantly more poorly on the measure of impulse control than the matched controls. Conclusions: This observation suggests that the adverse effect of heroin on impulse control may be long lasting. Alternative explanations for the findings were also discussed.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The impact of heroin on frontal executive functions

Our study examined the impact of heroin on frontal executive functioning in three cognitive domains, namely attention, impulse control, and mental flexibility and abstract reasoning. It was hypothesized that heroin addiction would lead to deficits in these three cognitive domains. Fifty-five participants, 30 heroin addicts, and 25 normal controls were invited to participate in this study. Each participant was individually interviewed for demographic data and tested by the selected neuropsychological measures. The findings indicate that heroin addiction has a negative effect on impulse control, while attention and mental flexibility/abstract reasoning ability were not affected. © 2002 National Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex