Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
I've been looking up papers about memory impairment from amphetamine use (because I can’t remember what I had for breakfast most days) and found this very interesting study which suggests (for men at least) amphetamine causes greater and likely irreparable cognitive impairment than do opiates. However, opiates do also cause significant impairment. The only caveat, is that opiate users and amphetamine users might have begun by being more impaired than non-users to begin with (i.e. inclined to do drugs due to brain structure). Unfortunately there are no before and after studies looking at long term use. Also unfortunately, impairment does not seem to get better with time in adults - putting the neuroplasticity argument into question.
Very interesting that women drug-users end up significantly LESS cognitively dysfunctional than male users, although in the non-drug user control group men were cognitively superior.
I was very surprised to learn about opiates causing significant and likely permanent impairment (if it was not there to begin with.
How are your cognitive skills? When in your drug career did you notice impairment?
ABSTRACT
Cognitive function was assessed in chronic drug users on neurocognitive measures of executive and memory function. Current amphetamine users were contrasted with current opiate users, and these two groups were compared with former users of these substances (abstinent for at least one year). Four groups of participants were recruited: amphetamine-dependent individuals, opiate-dependent individuals, former users of amphetamines, and/or opiates and healthy non-drug taking controls. Participants were administered the Tower of London (TOL) planning task and the 3D-IDED attentional set-shifting task to assess executive function, and Paired Associates Learning and Delayed Pattern Recognition Memory tasks to assess visual memory function. The three groups of substance users showed significant impairments on TOL planning, Pattern Recognition Memory and Paired Associates Learning. Current amphetamine users displayed a greater degree of impairment than current opiate users. Consistent with previous research showing that healthy men are performing better on visuo-spatial tests than women, our male controls remembered significantly more paired associates than their female counterparts. This relationship was reversed in drug users. While performance of female drug users was normal, male drug users showed significant impairment compared to both their female counterparts and male controls. There was no difference in performance between current and former drug users. Neither years of drug abuse nor years of drug abstinence were associated with performance. Chronic drug users display pronounced neuropsychological impairment in the domains of executive and memory function. Impairment persists after several years of drug abstinence and may reflect neuropathology in frontal and temporal cortices.
Very interesting that women drug-users end up significantly LESS cognitively dysfunctional than male users, although in the non-drug user control group men were cognitively superior.
I was very surprised to learn about opiates causing significant and likely permanent impairment (if it was not there to begin with.
How are your cognitive skills? When in your drug career did you notice impairment?
ABSTRACT
Cognitive function was assessed in chronic drug users on neurocognitive measures of executive and memory function. Current amphetamine users were contrasted with current opiate users, and these two groups were compared with former users of these substances (abstinent for at least one year). Four groups of participants were recruited: amphetamine-dependent individuals, opiate-dependent individuals, former users of amphetamines, and/or opiates and healthy non-drug taking controls. Participants were administered the Tower of London (TOL) planning task and the 3D-IDED attentional set-shifting task to assess executive function, and Paired Associates Learning and Delayed Pattern Recognition Memory tasks to assess visual memory function. The three groups of substance users showed significant impairments on TOL planning, Pattern Recognition Memory and Paired Associates Learning. Current amphetamine users displayed a greater degree of impairment than current opiate users. Consistent with previous research showing that healthy men are performing better on visuo-spatial tests than women, our male controls remembered significantly more paired associates than their female counterparts. This relationship was reversed in drug users. While performance of female drug users was normal, male drug users showed significant impairment compared to both their female counterparts and male controls. There was no difference in performance between current and former drug users. Neither years of drug abuse nor years of drug abstinence were associated with performance. Chronic drug users display pronounced neuropsychological impairment in the domains of executive and memory function. Impairment persists after several years of drug abstinence and may reflect neuropathology in frontal and temporal cortices.
