NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING IN NORMAL SUBJECTS

This study examined the neuropsychological and personality functioning of four groups of ''normal'' subjects: (1) ''clean''; (2) positive dr ug screen; (3) prior psychiatric diagnosis; and (4) first-degree relat ive with a psychiatric history. Researchers usually exclude these latt er three groups based on the assumption that their neuropsychological functioning will be worse than ''clean'' normal subjects. Of the four groups, there was a trend for the drug group to perform worse on neuro psychological tasks and for subjects with a personal or family history of psychiatric disorder to perform better. Within the drug group, the five subjects who tested positive for cocaine or barbiturates showed worse performance than the marijuana group. Thus, it appears that it i s important to screen normals for drugs, especially for cocaine and ba rbiturates, because of adverse neuropsychological performance.