NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF RECENTLY ABSTINENT ALCOHOLICS AND COCAINE ABUSERS

To examine possible influences of premorbid and comorbid factors on th e neuropsychological test performance of recently abstinent (3-5 weeks ) drug abusers, we studied 24 alcoholics, 23 cocaine abusers, and 22 h ealthy controls of comparable age and education. Both alcoholics and c ocaine abusers performed significantly more poorly than controls on mo st measures of learning and memory, problem solving and abstraction an d perceptual-motor speed, but the groups did not differ on the measure of sustained attention. Correlational analyses revealed no significan t relationships between measures of childhood and residual hyperactivi ty and neuropsychological performance; scores on the Beck Depression I nventory were related only to performance on the Wisconsin Card Sortin g Test. The findings indicate that abuse of cocaine or alcohol is asso ciated with deficits on neuropsychological tests which cannot be attri buted to specific premorbid or comorbid factors such as depression or childhood or residual attention deficit disorder.