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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2006

Open Access 01-12-2006 | Research article

Cognitive function during early abstinence from opioid dependence: a comparison to age, gender, and verbal intelligence matched controls

Authors: Pekka Rapeli, Reetta Kivisaari, Taina Autti, Seppo Kähkönen, Varpu Puuskari, Olga Jokela, Hely Kalska

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2006

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Abstract

Background

Individuals with opioid dependence have cognitive deficits during abuse period in attention, working memory, episodic memory, and executive function. After protracted abstinence consistent cognitive deficit has been found only in executive function. However, few studies have explored cognitive function during first weeks of abstinence. The purpose of this study was to study cognitive function of individuals with opioid dependence during early abstinence. It was hypothesized that cognitive deficits are pronounced immediately after peak withdrawal symptoms have passed and then partially recover.

Methods

Fifteen patients with opioid dependence and fifteen controls matched for, age, gender, and verbal intelligence were tested with a cognitive test battery When patients performed worse than controls correlations between cognitive performance and days of withdrawal, duration of opioid abuse, duration of any substance abuse, or opioid withdrawal symptom inventory score (Short Opiate Withdrawal Scale) were analyzed.

Results

Early abstinent opioid dependent patients performed statistically significantly worse than controls in tests measuring complex working memory, executive function, and fluid intelligence. Their complex working memory and fluid intelligence performances correlated statistically significantly with days of withdrawal.

Conclusion

The results indicate a rather general neurocognitive deficit in higher order cognition. It is suggested that cognitive deficit during early abstinence from opioid dependence is related to withdrawal induced neural dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex and is partly transient.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Cognitive function during early abstinence from opioid dependence: a comparison to age, gender, and verbal intelligence matched controls
Authors
Pekka Rapeli
Reetta Kivisaari
Taina Autti
Seppo Kähkönen
Varpu Puuskari
Olga Jokela
Hely Kalska
Publication date
01-12-2006
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2006
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-6-9

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