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Abstract:
Increased noradrenergic tone causes impairs performance on
certain problem solving tasks requiring cognitive flexibility, such
as anagrams. Upregulation of the noradrenergic system occurs during
withdrawal from cocaine and opiates. Therefore, one might predict
impaired cognitive flexibility during cocaine and opiate
withdrawal. Our study investigated whether individuals withdrawing
from cocaine were impaired in solving anagrams. Twelve recovering
cocaine addicts were compared to gender, age, and IQ matched
control subjects on performance of 5-letter anagrams as well as
other neuropsychological tests. Individuals withdrawing form
cocaine were significantly slower on the anagrams (logarithmic
scores) than normals. No significant differences were detected
between groups in performance of many of the relatively cognitive
flexibility-independent tasks, such as recall of the Rey complex
figure. However, normal individuals did recall more items than drug
withdrawal patients on the free recall portions of the California
Verbal Learning Test. Our findings suggest that cognitive
flexibility is impaired in individuals withdrawing from cocaine,
perhaps due to upregulation of the noradrenergic system. Research
will be needed to further address this question by examining the
cognitive effects of pharmacological manipulation of the
noradrenergic system during drug withdrawal. Further data will also
be needed in order to compare these results to those of other
cognitive flexibility and language tasks that have been studied in
this population.
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