Cognitive Impairment in Opium Use Disorder.

Hossein Sanjari Moghaddam,Shakila Meshkat,Vajiheh Aghamollaii,Abbas Tafakhori,Maryam Haghshomar,Helen Shahkhah,Behrang Shadloo,Nicola Tambasco

doi:10.1155/2021/5548623

Hossein Sanjari Moghaddam, Shakila Meshkat + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5548623

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Journal: Behavioural neurology	Publication Date: Jul 30, 2021
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

This cross-sectional study is aimed at assessing the effects of opium use disorder (OUD) on attention, working memory, and information-processing speed. Thirty outpatients with OUD and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were assessed using a neuropsychological battery consisted of Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Revised (AVLT-R), Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R), Digit Forward and Backward Tests (DFT and DBT), and WAIS-R Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). The most affected cognitive functions in patients with OUD were detected by DBT and DSST. However, we found no significant difference between patients according to the route of administration. Within patients with OUD, DBT score was associated with opium use quantity (OUQ) (r = −0.385), and DBT (r = 0.483) and DSST (r = 0.542) scores were correlated with duration of use. Our findings indicated that working memory and information-processing speed are the most affected domains of cognitive functioning. DBT and DSST could be used as brief assessments in clinical settings to screen for cognitive deficits in patients with OUD.

Highlights

Opium use disorder (OUD) is a major public health concern, associated with significant health, social, and economic consequences as well as decreased quality of life in both low- and high-income societies [1,2,3]
The participants of our study were opium users only with no other concomitant substance abuse; (2) in contrast to the previous studies, which have applied a restricted battery of neuropsychological tests, we have used a constellation of tests assessing various aspects of cognition such as verbal and nonverbal memory, attention, working memory, and speed-processing; (3) the duration, amount, and route of opium use in patients, which were missing in the previous studies and might have affected the level of cognitive impairments in patients with OUD
We have investigated the severity of cognitive impairments in a group of patients with OUD using a neuropsychological battery consisting of Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Revised (AVLT-R), Brief Visuospatial Memory TestRevised (BVMT-R), DFT and DBT, and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST)

Summary

Introduction

Opium use disorder (OUD) is a major public health concern, associated with significant health, social, and economic consequences as well as decreased quality of life in both low- and high-income societies [1,2,3]. The prevalence of OUD, the use of synthetic opioids, is increasingly growing in several countries [1, 2]. It has been reported that patients being treated for OUD continue to have severe social and monetary problems (De [4]). Patients with OUD might be at greater risk of using other substances such as alcohol, cannabis, and methamphetamine, leading to worse clinical outcomes and lower quality of life [7,8,9]. The use of polysubstance further complicates the assessment of negative consequences of opioids, per se

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