Abstract

FERREIRA, Vinícius Renato Thomé  and  COLOGNESE, Bruna Tolotti. Executive Function Impairments in crack/cocaine abusers: estudios de caso. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.13, n.2, pp. 195-201. ISSN 1677-0471.

Abusive drugs use is one of the most important problems in public health for causing many health damages. Proper understanding of these impairments is central to organize better treatment strategies. This paper objectived to investigate changes in neuropsychological crack/cocaine users, identifying changes in the executive functions and comparing the executive functioning of study participants. Five cocaine/crack users were evaluated by application of a semi-structured interview, Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Instrument (NEUPSILIN), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and nonverbal test BETA III. The results had showed impairments in processing speed and difficulty in cognitive processing and general difficulties in tasks involving attention and memory in most subjects. As these executive functions are highly necessary to organize and maintain behavior control, disadvantage may difficult treatment adherence and abstinence behavior.

Keywords : neuropsychology; executive functions; cocaine; crack.

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