Cognitive functioning in alcoholic patients with and without cocaine dependence.
Neuropsychological functioning of 32 cocaine-dependent, alcoholic patients was compared to that of 55 alcoholic patients without cocaine use at the beginning of treatment. When the effects of age were statistically controlled, cocaine-dependent patients performed more poorly on measures of immediate and delayed verbal memory. There were no other group differences on screening measures of attention, visuoconstructional ability, visuospatial memory, abstract reasoning, or practical judgment. Thus, in this sample of alcoholic patients, a specific decrement in verbal memory was associated with chronic cocaine use. The brief screening battery used in this study might have failed to detect other, more subtle impairments in the cocaine-dependent group.
Medical University of South Carolina and Mental Health Service, Ralph H. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Charleston, 29401-5799, USA. hornermd@musc.edu
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