SPATIAL COGNITION IN ALCOHOLICS - INFLUENCE OF CONCURRENT ABUSE OF OTHER DRUGS

Several tests of visuospatial cognition are known to be sensitive to c hronic alcohol abuse, but the consequences of combined abuse of alcoho l and other drugs on these measures is not known. To address this issu e, groups that had abused only alcohol, alcohol and marijuana, or alco hol and multiple other drugs (Alc/Poly) were compared to community con trols. Testing occurred after at least 3 weeks of treatment for the dr ug abusers. On all measures of visuospatial perception and constructio n and on all measures of visuospatial learning and memory, all groups of alcoholics were impaired relative to controls, but there were no si gnificant differences among the groups that abused alcohol. By contras t, on all measures of geographical knowledge that required place local ization, subjects in the Alc/Poly group were impaired while subjects w ho abused only alcohol or alcohol and marijuana performed as well as c ontrols. Measures of alcohol consumption, mood or childhood or adult a ttention deficit were not consistently correlated with test performanc e. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.