Drug use and Visual-Motor Integration in a Sample of Hispanic Women

Abstract

Abstract Objective The use of illicit drugs has increased dramatically over the past two decades among Hispanics. Neurocognitive impairments and morphological alterations have been linked to the use of drugs among the Hispanic population. However, even when increased attention is paid to the impact of drug consumption on neurocognitive functions among Hispanics, the majority of publications have been limited to male samples. This is relatively important, considering that women who consume illicit drugs appear to be more vulnerable in developing drug dependence and exhibit more neurocognitive impairment when compared to men. The present study aims to determine the impact of drug consumption in the visual-motor integration in a sample of Puerto Rican women. Our hypothesis was that Puerto Rican women who consume illicit drugs would perform poorly on visual-motor integration when compared to non-consumers. Participants and Method A total of 59 Puerto Rican women participated in this cross-sectional study. The participants were divided into three groups according to the criteria of: consumers, non-consumers, and abstinence. To evaluate the visual-motor integration, we administered the neuropsychological Bender-Gestalt-II test to all participants. Results A Kruskal-Wallis analysis revealed that there was a statically significant difference in the visual-motor integration between groups (H(2) = 12.69, p = 0.02), with a mean rank of 28 for consumers, 40 for non-consumers, and 21 for abstinence group. However, there was no significant difference between the abstinence and consumer groups in their visual-motor integration (p = .217). Conclusions These results suggest that the use of drugs can impact some neurocognitive functions, such as visual-motor integration in women, and can lead to a decline in such functions- even after sustained abstinence.