Cognitive Screening of Pakistani Substance-Dependent Male Patients using Montreal Cognitive Assessment Score (MoCA)

Abstract

Objectives:The objective of this study was to determine the cognitive impairments present in Pakistani substance -dependent patients admitted in rehabilitation centers of Islamabad/Rawalpindi in a time-efficient and cost effective way. Globally, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is being used for cognitive screening of patients, due to its established clinical utility and ease of administration. Therefore, we sought to investigate acceptability of this test in substance -dependent patients of Pakistani origin.Study design: This is a multi-site, cross-sectional study.Methods: In this study, MoCA was administered to 100 substance dependents in-patients together with 60 age and education level matched nonsubstance using healthy controls. All the study participants were male and aged between 23-47. Results:The mean MoCA score was 18.5± 4.5 for addicted patients and 74% had abnormal score (≤ 26 value) and 29.1± 1.2 for the controls. In our study population, age and education levels were negatively associated with MoCA scores. Visuospatial processing, working memory and executive function domains were found to be significantly impaired in all the cases. Majority of our substance -dependent patients (86%) did not find cognitive screening with MoCA as an unpleasant experience. Conclusions:MoCA test can be used as an initial cognitive screening tool in Pakistani substance-dependent patients admitted in rehabilitation centers.