Prospective Memory in Substance Abusers at Treatment Entry: Associations with Education, Neuropsychological Functioning, and Everyday Memory Lapses

Abstract

Individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) commonly report lapses in prospective memory (PM) in their daily lives; however, our understanding of the profile and predictors of laboratory-based PM deficits in SUDs and their associations with everyday PM failures is still very preliminary. The current study examined these important questions using well-validated measures of self-report and laboratory-based PM in a mixed cohort of 53 SUD individuals at treatment entry and 44 healthy adults. Consistent with prior research, the SUD group endorsed significantly more self-cued and environmentally based PM failures in their daily lives. Moreover, the SUD group demonstrated significantly lower time-based PM performance, driven largely by cue detection errors. The effect of SUDs on PM was particularly strong among participants with fewer years of education. Within the SUD cohort, time-based PM was correlated with clinical measures assessing executive functions, retrospective memory, and psychomotor speed. Importantly, time-based PM was uniquely associated with elevated PM failures in daily lives of the SUD participants, independent of current affective distress and other neurocognitive deficits. Findings suggest that individuals with SUD are vulnerable to deficits in PM, which may in turn increase their risk for poorer everyday functioning outcomes (e.g., treatment non-compliance).

Neuropsychological Assessment in Substance Abuse Treatment—Focusing on the Effects of Substances and on Neuropsychological Assessment as a Collaborative Process

“…In other studies, the participants have used multiple substances (Morris & Lawson, 1999;Thoma et al, 2011;Weinborn et al, 2011). In sum, there are considerable risks for impairments regardless of what substance that has been consumed (Lundqvist, 2009;Schrimsher et al, 2007).…”

“…Stimulants decrease, for example, working memory, attention, and executive functions (Jovanovski et al, 2005;Lundqvist, 2009). Moreover, stimulants impair the capacity to remember future intentions, a finding that is of considerable ecological importance because this capacity is crucial for the possibility to develop a satisfying life situation (Iudicello et al, 2011;Weinborn et al, 2011). It seems that emotional distress and impaired functions after the abuse of stimulants might recover on abstinence, but recovery may occur after a year or even longer (Iudicello et al, 2010).…”

“…On the contrary, practitioners have to be receptive to the findings and to the reactions of the client (Good, 2000;Gorske & Smith, 2009). Emotional and social distress, experiences of trauma, and severe psychiatric symptoms should also be examined, because such difficulties are known to coexist with substance abuse (Bernstein, 2000;Lange et al, 2008;Rutter et al, 2006;Weinborn et al, 2011). As an example, difficulties in memory and attention might reflect effects of substances or a neuropsychiatric disorder.…”

Potential factors that may promote successful cognitive aging

“…54,59,60 As there are several lifestyle factors that promote positive neuroplasticity and cognitive reserve, the literature also shows several lifestyle factors and behaviors that promote negative neuroplasticity and diminish cognitive reserve (Figure 1). Such factors include alcohol and drug abuse, 61,62 mood disturbances, 34 poor nutrition, 38,39 poor health, 63 and poor education. [19][20][21]33,34 Just as positive health practices are protective of neurological functioning, poor health practices such as substance abuse and chronic stress are not.…”

Text Messaging for Addiction: A Review

“…Even for healthy individuals, repetition can improve retention of new information. In addition, individuals with substance use disorders may have significant impairment in a number of neuropsychological domains, notably prospective memory (Weinborn et al 2011) and decision making (Fernandez-Serrano, Perez-Garcia & Verdejo-Garcia 2011). Use of some drugs is also associated with amplified delay discounting, in which users prefer immediate, smaller rewards to delayed larger rewards (Fernandez-Serrano, Perez-Garcia & Verdejo-Garcia 2011).…”