EFFECTS OF CHRONIC DRUG USE ON COGNITION

在美国，药物滥用仍然是一个主要的健康问题。 药物使用对认知的不良影响是令人严重关注的。如果有些人 吸毒者发展为长期的大脑功能障碍，潜在的成本 社会在医疗成本增加和生产力下降中 很高。令人惊讶的是，尽管许多人的严重认知障碍 药物已被证明，慢性药物效应的实验研究 关于认识的数量很少，方法论薄弱，模棱两可 在结果中。 我们研究的广泛的、长期的目标是了解影响 长期单独和联合使用几种药物对认知的影响。 在这项申请中提出的研究将检查认知效应 通过比较单独吸食大麻和与酒精混合吸食 频繁使用大麻、频繁饮酒或频繁使用 与很少使用这两种物质的个人进行比较；以及 将通过研究来检查多种非法药物的认知影响 经常同时使用大麻和可卡因的个人，混合使用 与其他非法药物有关。小组将在智力功能上进行匹配 在药物使用开始前，使用标准化的分数记录 爱荷华州几乎所有儿童都可以参加的测试。类似的， 高度相关的标准化测试，适合成人和 强调利用以前获得的信息将是 管理，以及强调抽象的计算机化测试 学习和记忆新信息的能力。 四组吸毒者将在非吸毒者的情况下进行测试 在接受药物和酒精治疗后14至21天的情况 设施，并将在入院后3个月重新测试以评估 持续禁欲可能会导致认知缺陷的改变。这个 研究将确定个人是否参与了四种模式的 与匹配的非吸毒者相比，慢性吸毒者表现出损害， 具体审查最广泛使用的非法行为的相互影响 和合法药物(大麻和酒精)和参与的影响 除大麻外，还有可卡因和其他非法药物。

Drug abuse continues to be a major health problem in the United States. Adverse effects of drug use on cognition are of serious concern. If some drug users develop long-term cerebral dysfunction, the potential costs to society in increased health care costs and decreased productivity are high. Surprisingly, although acute impairments of cognition from many drugs have been demonstrated, experimental studies of chronic drug effects on cognition have been few in number, methodologically weak, and ambiguous in outcome. The broad, long-term objectives of our research are to understand effects of chronic use of several drugs, alone and in combination, on cognition. The study proposed in this application will examine cognitive effects of marijuana alone and in combination with alcohol by comparing individuals engaging in frequent marijuana use, frequent alcohol use, or frequent use of both substances with individuals who rarely use either substance; and will examine cognitive effects of multiple illicit drugs by studying individuals who use both marijuana and cocaine frequently, in combination with other illicit drugs. Groups will be matched on intellectual function before the onset of drug use, using records of scores on standardized tests that are available for virtually all children in Iowa. Similar, highly correlated, standardized tests that are suitable for adults and that emphasize utilization of previously acquired information will be administered, along with computerized tests that emphasize abstraction ability and learning and remembering new information. Four groups of drug users who are patients will be tested under non-drug conditions 14 to 21 days after admission to drug and alcohol treatment facilities, and will be retested 3 months after admission to assess possible changes in cognitive deficits with continued abstinence. The study will determine whether individuals engaging in four patterns of chronic drug use show impairments relative to matched non-users, specifically examining interactive effects of the most widely used illicit and licit drugs (marijuana and alcohol) and effects of involvement with cocaine and other illicit drugs, in addition to marijuana.