National Institute on Drug Abuse
RESEARCH
MONOGRAPH SERIES
Residual Effects
of Abused Drugs
on Behavior
10 1
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services • Public Health Service • National Institutes of Health
Residual Effects of
Abused Drugs on
Behavior
Editors:
John W. Spencer, Ph.D.
Division of Clinical Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
John J. Boren, Ph.D.
Division of Clinical Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Research Monograph 101
1990
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration
National Institute on Drug Abuse
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402
Residual Effects of Abused Drugs
on Behavior
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This monograph is based on the papers and discussion from a technical
review on “Residual Effects of Abused Drugs on Behavior: ClinicalResearch Integration” held on February 23 and 24, 1989, in Rockville, MD.
The review meeting was sponsored by the Office of Science and the
Division of Clinical Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
COPYRIGHT STATUS
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has obtained permission from the
copyright holders to reproduce certain previously published material as noted
in the text. Further reproduction of this copyrighted material is permitted
only as part of a reprinting of the entire publication or chapter. For any
other use, the copyright holder’s permission is required. All other material
in this volume except quoted passages from copyrighted sources is in the
public domain and may be used or reproduced without permission from the
Institute or the authors. Citation of the source is appreciated.
Opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or official policy of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse or any other part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
The U.S. Government does not endorse or favor any specific commercial
product or company. Trade, proprietary, or company names appearing in
this publication are used only because they are considered essential in the
context of the studies reported herein.
DHHS publication number (ADM)90-1719
Printed 1990
NIDA Research Monographs are indexed in the Index Medicus. They are
selectively included in the coverage of American Statistics Index,
BioSciences Information Service, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents,
Psychological Abstracts, and Psychopharmacology Abstracts.
iv
Contents
Page
Preface
vii
Methodological Issues
Why Evaluate for Residual Drug Effects
John Spencer
The Long-Term Neurobehavioral Consequences of Substance
Abuse: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges for
Future Research
Robert Reed and Igor Grant
Use of Complex Behavioral Baselines to Monitor Residual
Drug Effects in Animals
Merle Paule
1
10
57
Clinical and Laboratory Investigations of
Residual Drug Effects
Clinical-Behavioral Observations of the Long-Term
Effects of Drug Abuse
George E. Woody, A. Thomas McLellan, and
Charles P. O’Brien
71
Adaptive Behavior in Recovering Female
Phencyclidine/Polysubstance Abusers
Judy Howard Leila Beckwith, and Carol Rodning
86
Long-Term Marijuana Use and Subsequent Effects on
Learning and Cognitive Functions Related to School
Achievement: Preliminary Study
Robert I. Block, Sara Farnham, Kathleen Braverman,
Russell Noyes, Jr., and M.M. Ghoneim
96
v
Residual Effects of Alcohol
Peter E. Nathan
112
Hepatic, Nutritional, and Genetic Influences on Cognitive
Process in Alcoholics
Ralph E. Tarter, Howard Moss, Amelia Arria, and
David Van Thiel
Learning and Memory Deficits in Detoxified Alcoholics
Marlene Oscar-Berman
Persisting Neurotoxic Consequences of Solvent Abuse:
A Developing Animal Model for Toluene-Induced
Neurotoxicity
Gordon Pryor
Cognitive Deficits in Abstaining Cocaine Abusers
Ronald I. Herning, Barbara J. Glover, Bonnie Koeppl,
William Weddington, and Jerome H. Jaffe
124
136
156
167
Abstinence Symptomatology and Neuropsychological
Deficits in Chronic Cocaine Abusers
Stephanie S. O’Malley and Frank H. Gawin
179
List of NIDA Research Monographs
191
vi
Preface
During the past decade, there has been a disturbing rise in the abuse of
various addictive drugs. What has become increasingly clear is the complexity of use of substances such as methamphetamine, marijuana, phencyclidine, cocaine or crack, and alcohol; often two or more drugs are taken
concurrently at high doses. Not only is the degree of possible toxicity
poorly understood, but so are the residual central nervous system and
behavioral effects following drug discontinuation.
Determining long-term drug effects is important if their possible adverse
consequences to physical and mental functioning are to be fully understood.
For example, the extent to which long-term drug use specifically impairs
cognition, e.g., the ability to think and reason, or exacerbates a long-lasting
psychiatric or dementialike disorder is either not known or the information
is incomplete. The ramification of residual drug effects extends beyond the
individual to include the family, various legal and educational institutions,
and even newborn infants. Estimates of the financial costs of treatment and
rehabilitation of indigent substance abusers as well as postnatal care given
to babies born to addicted mothers are escalating yearly.
A technical review entitled “Residual Effects of Abused Drugs on Behavior:
A Clinical-Research Integration” was held at the National Institute on Drug
Abuse in Rockville, MD, on February 23 and 24, 1989. The two major
goals were: (1) to evaluate the current state of knowledge on the residual
effects of chronic substance abuse on behavior, and (2) to foster an interdisciplinary research effort to study and understand long-term drug effects
by involving both laboratory researchers and clinicians.
vii
The papers presented at this technical review form the basis for the present
monograph.
John W. Spencer, Ph.D.
John J. Boren, Ph.D.
Clinical and Behavioral Pharmacology
Branch
Division of Clinical Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Rockville, MD 20857
viii
Why Evaluate for Residual Drug
Effects
John W. Spencer
INTRODUCTION
If illegal drugs such as cocaine and crack, phencyclidine, marijuana, or
methamphetamine are repeatedly abused for an indefinite period of time, are
there long-lasting effects on behavior following discontinuation of use? Can
either temporary or permanent brain damage or brain dysfunction be described? If some type of behavioral deficit does exist, can it be directly
attributable to the use of the drug itself? Despite over 20 years of research,
answers to these questions are either not known or are incomplete.
What has been described in the research literature is that following alcohol
withdrawal and, to some extent, inhalant abuse, certain individuals may have
a behavioral, cognitive impairment in the initiation and flexibility of thinking and reasoning, a loss in memory function, or both (Nathan, this volume). These longer lasting, persistent impairments in behavior extending
beyond any detoxification period have been termed “residual effects.”
Studies that have attempted to establish whether residual effects exist for
any illegal drug of abuse have been more equivocal (Reed and Grant, this
volume).
The major points that will be described and developed in this chapter are
that, following repeated abuse of any substance, it will first be necessary to
evaluate and establish whether residual drug effects exist; then the careful
profiling or classifying of residual effects into type, degree of severity, and
duration of effect or recovery for a specific population (children, adults) can
provide a directed focus of research into the consequences of long-term
illegal drug usage.
STEPS IN CLINICAL EVALUATION
Clinically, it is important to describe the presence of any detrimental behavioral deficits following long-term substance abuse. The neuropsychologist is
1
often presented with assessment referrals that request evaluation of detoxified drug abusers. A major job is the thorough indexing of performance
impairments. Data collected helps to describe behaviorally what tasks the
individual can or cannot perform. It is useful to analyze both level and
quality of performance. This information can reveal how deficient the
client is when compared to a drug-nonabusing subject, as well as reflecting
the degree of accuracy and speed on specific items. Areas that need to be
measured include motor dexterity, sensory processing (visual, auditory, and
tactile), reaction time, attention and concentration, language functioning and
verbal reasoning, visual-spatial analysis and construction, verbal and nonverbal memory, and degree of abstraction, planning, and problem-solving
skills. Many of these perceptual and cognitive functions overlap in the
skills required for successful performance. Memory may involve both
verbal stimuli and visual-spatial configurations and depend upon adequate
sensory processing ability. Concentration deficits can impair the ability to
reason, as well as the ability to make judgments. Motivational deficits also
may contribute to impairment at all levels of functioning. As will be discussed later in this chapter, more specific types of neurobehavioral
responses may need to be evaluated. Neuropsychological evaluations should
not only help describe cognitive impairments but should also list performance strengths that are not adequately used by the abstinent substance
abuser.
It is equally important to ascertain not only if drug abusers understand
certain abstractions but if they can access this ability to function adaptively.
For example, in addition to simply indexing cognitive performance deficits,
the relationship of these deficits to practical, everyday life situations should
be made. Schaffer and Parsons (1987) demonstrated that sober middle-aged
alcoholics who initially learned to match each face of six men and six
women with a given name and then were required to recall the name after
the face was again presented were less accurate than age- and educationequated controls. These learning deficits suggest a type of impairment in
current adaptive behavior as, in the same study, the face-naming test predicted significant positive correlations between task performance and therapist ratings for the clients on various components of treatment behavior and
treatment benefit, e.g., ability to plan ahead. The Adaptive Skills Battery
(ASB) may be another type of test that has some degree of clinical relevance to the evaluation of cognition in detoxified drug abusers. Responses
are scored in terms of competency of coping skills in a variety of common
situations in the workplace and in marital, peer, and social relations. The
respondent records what he or she would do in a given situation and, setond, records what the very best response or action would be. Patterson
et al. (1988) showed that detoxified alcoholics produced lower competency
scores than controls’ scores in a “give your typical response” set; however,
in “give your best response” set, alcoholics and nonalcoholics did not differ,
suggesting that it is in the execution of the cognitive or problem-solving
skills and not in the capacity for such skills that drug abusers have the
2
most difficulties. This interpretation was strengthened because there was no
significant correlation between performance on impersonal neuropsychological tests, e.g., nonverbal conceptualization, and competency of responding
on the ASB. Through the use of adaptive behavior tests, the residual
effects of drugs on certain aspects of cognition, such as interpersonal problem solving, may be elucidated. This information may be used to begin to
make more accurate predictions of success in treatment, likelihood of
relapse, and quality of posttreatment competency.
RESEARCH NEEDS
In many clinical referrals, specific questions are often asked. For example,
“Is there evidence of brain damage?” or “What is the prognosis?” The
implied assumption is that long-term drug abuse either directly or indirectly
alters brain functioning. Research indicates that alcohol abuse can result in
a pattern of behavioral impairments suggestive of central nervous system
(CNS) damage (Tarter et al., this volume). Alcoholics demonstrate a pattern of generalized cognitive impairments in the areas of concept formation,
perceptual-motor performance, and complex learning. These deficits are
thought to be related to a diffuse pattern of cortical impairment, although
some investigators suggest that frontal-limbic circuits are more susceptible.
Alcoholics also show a type of residual memory deficit that may become
severe enough to produce Korsakoff’s syndrome, which is thought to be
related to a more diencephalic subcortical pathology. Additionally, the
extent to which long-term drug abuse may potentially hasten a form of
organic brain disorder such as dementia, while presently not understood, becomes a challenging research issue in the study of residual drug effects, as
it has clinical-prognostic significance.
Separation of Effects
A related research issue is that if residual drug effects exist, performance
testing procedures should describe and separate the transient from the longer
term effects. This information has implications for accurately describing
and predicting the clinical course of recovery and for interfacing assessment
and treatment. Early in treatment, substance abusers may be cognitively
impaired to the extent that information processing cannot be adequately performed. Repeated neuropsychological assessments can help describe the
degree to which the patient’s mental functioning is recovering, as well as
measuring recovery in general. Longer lasting deficits, particularly those
involving memory loss, need to be documented, and appropriate adjustments
made in the treatment plan. For example, teaching new skills or alternative
activities to replace impairments caused by the drug-taking behavior may
not be as easy to accomplish if memory processes are not intact.
3
Developmental Effects. At present, there is no concentrated research effort
describing and subsequently tracking performance deficits in children who
have stopped abusing drugs. It would be useful to determine if any residual drug effects can be found in this population, because it is at this age that
various components of cognition, including planning, evaluation, and
abstracting skills, undergo major developmental changes. A need exists to
present data concerning the possible deleterious effects of a specific drug or
drug combinations that might occur at a particular developmental stage in
the formation of intelligence, emotional functioning, or social functioning.
This information might be of help in remediation programming. If it can
be demonstrated, for example, that a particular drug has a long-lasting residual effect on a specific behavior such as learning, impulse control, or motor
activity, the parent or teacher’s early knowledge of this information may
help in understanding the child’s maladjustment or difficulty in coping.
Analysis of Subcomponents of Behavior. If residual drug effects can be
found in drug-abstinent children or adolescents, it is then useful to evaluate
the components of certain cognitive skills, such as types of memory deficits,
that may provide important information concerning the ways drug-abstinent
children differ from drug-nonabusing children. Of paramount importance is
the complete description of types of specific performance errors. For
example, brain-impaired individuals can have many cognitive memory deficits, but these failures may occur for different reasons. Korsakoff's patients
have difficulty recognizing information (declarative memory) but can acquire
new skills (procedural memory), whereas persons with Huntington’s disease
show a generalized impairment in memory but fail because of deficits in
procedural learning rather than failures in recognition (Mat-tone et al. 1984).
Oscar-Berman (this volume) provides additional descriptions of types of
errors made by Korsakoff's patients. Further, information of specific learning deficits in drug-abusing children may help uncover potential differences
between the maturing right and left hemispheres. Adult alcoholics have difficulty performing visual-spatial tasks, which are the hallmark of right
hemisphere damage in patients with documented pathology of this brain
area. Yet most research has provided little evidence of greater right- than
left-hemisphere damage. It remains to be clarified whether drug-abstinent
children, whose cortices are less mature, make the same types of errors that
reflect a generalized brain dysfunction in adults.
Many subclinical or “soft” signs seen in abstinent drug abusers may be
more readily demonstrated if specific tests or a standardized and computerized neuropsychological test battery were available. Traditional testing batteries such as the Halstead-Reitan or Luria-Nebraska, used primarily for
brain-damaged individuals, may be insensitive to drug-induced impairments.
Lucki and Rickels (1986) have demonstrated that psychometric tests such as
symbol copying and digit span did not reveal any significant deficits in subjects who had been taking benzodiazepines (BZ) chronically for at least 5
years. A test that measures visual perception thresholds, critical flicker
4
fusion, did reveal significant changes in long-term BZ users. Abilityspecific tests may be more useful than gross performance measures, which
are not demanding and focused enough to detect impairments. What
appears to be needed is the investigation of elementary components of complex behavior. Instead of evaluating logical memory and language by a
simple recall of a story or sentences, Zurif (1980) suggested the use of a
lexical decision task that breaks language down into separate functions.
Another example of the reduction of behavioral components to help evaluate
total performance can be seen in a model developed by Sternberg and
Gardner (1983). Verbal analogies are solved in a stepwise progression that
involves encoding, inferring, applying, comparing, justifying, and responding.
This type of “componential analysis” of analogical reasoning can help
describe specific processes that may be adversely affected by long-term drug
abuse. Remediation can then be directed at these deficits and not at other
processes that are functioning normally. A measurement process needs to
be developed that begins at the sensory transduction level and terminates
with motor output. Both capacity and efficiency of performance plus speed
in responding should be described. Neurologically impaired patients can be
accurate but very slow to process cognitive information. Whether this same
relationship exists for drug abstinent patients remains to be clarified.
Individual Differences. Describing individual differences regarding the
presence or absence of residual drug effects in children or adults may help
explain why some individuals are especially vulnerable to developing substance abuse habits. Predrug-use measures that list the presence or absence
of developmental delays, head injuries, attention deficits, minimal brain dysfunction, hyperactivity, as well as cognitive and learning disabilities, should
be well documented. Neuropsychological deficits may reflect a long-standing weakness in a particular cognitive process rather than revealing the
effects of only recent drug use on CNS functioning. The importance of
such research design issues can be illustrated by the strong suggestion that
individuals with childhood histories of hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder are at increased risk for the development, later in life, of psychiatric
illness, including the tendency to abuse drugs. Knop et al. (1985) have
documented that sons of alcoholic fathers were reported by their teachers to
experience a more disturbed school career and have poorer impulse control
as well as deficient verbal proficiency. An understanding of predrug behavior, when available, can help substantially in interpreting residual drug
effects.
Use of Animal Studies
Because of the complexities of interpretation of data in many clinical
studies, animal models can be useful for testing hypotheses regarding residual drug effects on cognition or other neurobehavioral processes. Among
the difficulties in evaluating human research has been relating long-term
drug abuse to brain dysfunction, which then may cause cognitive
5
impairment (causal hypothesis) or in demonstrating that with increased drug
use, performance impairments become correspondingly more severe (Parsons
et al. 1986).
By controlling diet and preventing nutritional deficiencies, the direct toxic
effects of repeatedly administered abused drug(s) on learning or performance
studies in animals may be evaluated over a specific time course. Important
variables such as drug dose, frequency and length of drug administration, as
well as the effect of age or gender, can be partialed out and quantified in
parametric studies. The repeated administration of drugs to animals over
time provides for a controlled way to evaluate hypotheses relating to residual drug effects. Determination of the relevance to clinical studies remains
an inherently difficult but necessary task.
CLINICAL EVALUATIONS’ CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH
Finally, evaluation for the presence of subtle residual drug effects may help
stimulate and develop a more comprehensive clinical and research methodology. As one example, Ciesielski et al. (1985) were able to show abnormalities in the visual evoked response of long-term substance abusers. The
human evoked potential (EVP) is an electrophysiological measurement in
which a sensory or cognitive signal “evokes” or stimulates a response that
is detected from the scalp and presumably represents brain responsiveness to
a stimulus. The EVP is reproduced as an averaged tracing with latency
(stimulus onset to response) and amplitude (height of response) within a
series of generated waveforms. Differences indexed in the Ciesielski study
included decreases in the amplitude of N2-P3 potentials. Some lateralizing
effect(s) were observed. Longer EVP latencies occurred over the right
rather than left hemisphere. No significant abnormalities were observed for
various psychometric tests, e.g., logical memory, visual reproduction, and
visual short-term memory. This finding suggested to the authors that not
only were the brain potentials a more sensitive indicator of cerebral impairment than were behavioral tests, but the finding might also indicate that
brain dysfunction physiologically can precede observable behavioral impairment. However, the assumption made in this study was that the psychological tests used were valid for the behavior studied. Other tests evaluating for memory dysfunction might have revealed different results. Certainly, noninvasive techniques such as the EVP, sleep-stage electrophysiology,
and autonomic measures of galvanic skin response, vagal responsiveness,
and neuromuscular physiology (tremors, balance) may be useful as adjunct
indicators for describing possible residual drug impairment. For example,
Harbin (1985) has reported that a late positive component of the eventrelated cortical potential can be correlated with memory (exponentially
decaying; long-term or recent) or response speed, two indicators of neurological status and possibly of long-term drug effects. Porjesz et al. (1987)
have also shown that the EVP (P3) appears to be reduced in voltage in
abstinent alcoholics but not controls, when the subjects were engaged in
6
tasks that measured attention. The suggestion was made that multiple system deficits were involved, including frontal or medial temporal lobe sites,
proposed generators for P3 wave forms. Continued research needs to clarify whether these interpretations are correct and to document the clinical
relevance of observed changes in the EVP during drug abstinence.
CONCLUSION
To summarize, it first needs to be established that residual effects do exist
following long-term drug abuse. It also remains to be clarified whether
long-term drug abuse produces irreversible brain damage or more subtle reversible brain dysfunction. By the careful analysis of various types of
learning and performance strengths and weaknesses, treatment planning strategies may begin to be made. This is especially true in cases in which
there is a dual diagnosis of a mental disorder coexisting with the substance
abuse, e.g., schizophrenia, depression, or dementia. It is important to know
how long-term drug abuse can produce symptoms similar to these disorders
as well as how the disorders control the drug-taking habit. A better understanding of the long-term performance deficits and any psychiatric disability
may help in formulating an appropriate followup and lessen the occurrence
of drug relapse. The study for possible residual drug effects in children
and adolescents may help describe the types of learning, social, and emotional problems they can be expected to have in school and in the home.
In this population, any neuropsychological assessment should include tests
that are valid and appropriate for each developmental stage. A challenge
for future research is to develop a new technology for indexing subtle, subclinical deficits occurring as a result of long-term drug abuse. One critical
variable that investigators will need to attend to is the degree to which
predrug deficits may interact with or influence outcome in the evaluation
for residual drug effects. Animal models may be especially useful and
appropriate.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MONOGRAPH
In the remaining chapters of this monograph, both the methodological and
clinical research studies investigating residual drug effects on behavior are
discussed. All the studies reveal the presence of some form of residual
drug effect on behavior. Mr. Reed and Dr. Grant provide a comprehensive
review of neuropsychological studies devoted to analyzing residual drug
effects focusing on the importance of valid and reliable measurements and
appropriate research designs to index behavioral deficits. Of special interest
is the tracking mechanism necessary to keep drug abusers in longitudinal
studies. A method of evaluating animal behavior, using complex operant
baselines, is suggested by Dr. Paule to be amenable to evaluating residual
drug effects. Data are presented that show various response-recovery rates
in animals previously exposed to certain drugs. Dr. Woody reviews the
clinical manifestations of stimulant and opiate residual effects. Of interest
7
is the possible biological alteration in the endocrine system of opiate
abusers and the corresponding changes in certain behavioral-affect rating
scales. Dr. Howard reviews her clinical findings, which show that in a
small group of black, disadvantaged women, abuse of phencyclidine has
residual effects on adaptive behavior 12 to 24 months after discontinuation
of drug use. The profound effect of phencyclidine used in conjunction with
other drugs appears to also influence sensory, motor, and play behavior of
infants born to these drug-abusing women. Dr. Block presents data that
show that heavy marijuana use may have residual effects on certain language-mediated tasks. The design of this study includes a predrug measurement, a component lacking in many residual studies. Investigations concerned with residual effects of alcohol have been going on for 20 years.
Researchers in this area have both knowledgeable and valuable contributions
to make to the field of polydrug abuse. Chapters by Drs. Nathan, Tarter,
and Oscar-Berman review the effects of long-term alcohol abuse on various
social and cognitive tasks. Alcohol abuse may produce a neurotoxic effect
involving the liver and vitamin E absorption, which may be partially
responsible for observed cognitive deficits. Learning deficits in alcoholics
are suggested to be related to a diffuse cortical damage, whereas memory
deficits may be more related to subcortical damage. Dr. Pryor utilizes an
animal model to demonstrate that behavioral measurements of grip strength,
stride length and width, and foot splay can be used to evaluate the subtle
residual effects of toluene in the rat. This finding shows how a drug that
is thought to act in an area of the brain responsible for motor control does
in fact impair motor behavior. Reporting on the residual effect of cocaine,
Dr. Herning uses a combined information-processing and reaction-time paradigm with an electrophysiological measurement (event-related potential) to
demonstrate subtle residual drug effects, and Dr. O’Malley reviews the
clinical abstinence symptomatology of cocaine and presents neuropsychological data that reveal some mild impairments. Of interest is that the length
of cocaine abstinence correlates with performance on tests that discriminated
cocaine abusers from normals.
REFERENCES
Ciesielski, K.T.; Madden, J.S.; Bligh, J.G.; and Schopflocher, D. Long term
brain impairment in chronic alcoholics: N2-P3 cognitive potentials in a
template matching memory task. Alcohol Alcohol 20:903-408, 1985.
Harbin, T. The late positive component of the evoked cortical potential:
Application to neurotoxicity testing. Neurobehav Toxic Teratol 7:345-350,
1985.
Knop, J.; Teasdale, T.; Schulsinger, F.; and Goodwin, D. A prospective
study of young men at high risk for alcoholism: School behavior and
achievement. J Stud Alcohol 46:273-278, 1985.
Lucki, I., and Rickels, K. The behavioral effects of benzodiazepines following long-term use. Psychopharmacol Bull 22(2):424-433, 1986.
8
Mat-tone, M.; Butters, N.; Payne, M.; Becker, J.T.; and Sax, D. Dissociations between skill learning and verbal recognition in amnesia and dementia. Arch Neurol 41:965-997, 1984.
Parsons, O.A., and Stevens, L. Previous alcohol intake and residual cognitive deficits in detoxified alcoholics and animals. Alcohol Alcohol
21(2):137-157, 1986.
Patterson, B.; Parsons, O.; Schaeffer, K.W.; and Errico, A.L. Interpersonal
problem solving in alcoholics. J Nerv Ment Dis 176:707-713, 1988.
Potjesz, B.; Begleiter, H.; Bihari, B.; and Kissin, B. Event related brain
potentials to high incentive stimuli in abstinent alcoholics. Alcohol
4(4):283-287, 1987.
Schaeffer, K.W., and Parsons, O. Learning impairment in alcoholics using
an ecologically relevant test. J Nerv Ment Dis 175:213-218, 1987.
Sternberg, R.J., and Gardner, M.K. Unities in inductive reasoning. J Exp
Psycho1 [Gen] 112:80-116, 1983.
Zurif, E. Language mechanisms: A neuropsychological perspective. Am
Sci 68:350-361, 1980.
AUTHOR
John W. Spencer, Ph.D.
Division of Clinical Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Parklawn Building, Room 10A5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
9
The Long-Term Neurobehavioral
Consequences of Substance
Abuse: Conceptual and
Methodological Challenges for
Future Research
Robert J. Reed and Igor Grant
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we discuss issues that need to be considered and directions
that might be taken in the investigation of central nervous system (CNS)
consequences of the long-term chronic abuse of psychoactive drugs. In so
doing, we will consider the current status of work in this area, several conceptual issues influencing such work, theoretical models for understanding
and guiding the development of sound research strategies, methodological
issues important to the implementation of repeated measures designs, and
some of the current neurodiagnostic methods that could be incorporated into
future multidisciplinary research.
Overview
In the 1960s, there began the well-documented upsurge in the nonmedical
use of pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical psychoactive chemicals, which
has yet to abate, some 25 years later. In the early 1970s, a number of
often contradictory reports began to appear in the literature describing the
findings of neuropsychological (NP) investigations of marijuana and hallucinogen use. The appearance of these articles signalled a caution that one
could not repeatedly expose the brain to psychoactive agents without ultimately paying a price. Simultaneously, the number of drug users whose
preferred substances included the barbiturate and nonbarbiturate CNS depressants and stimulants began to increase. Prevalence of heroin abuse also
escalated as many military personnel who were initially exposed to this drug
in Vietnam came home and continued to seek out and use opiates. During
this decade, it also became clear that the concept of the “pure” heroin
10
addict or the “pure” marijuana abuser was losing its validity, since the
majority of substance abusers had begun to avail themselves of several different drugs; hence the term “polydrug user” (Wesson et al. 1978).
Toward the end of the 1970s, the Nation was beginning to experience the
fallout from the large-scale introduction of cocaine into American society, as
production and distribution centers in Central and South America became
more sophisticated. The 1980s saw the advent of free-base cocaine and
crack as well as the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection through the use and sharing of dirty needles by intravenous (IV)
abusers of cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. Thus, even the recent history of substance abuse has many eddies and currents.
In the following review of research on neurobehavioral consequences of
substance abuse, especially the NP findings, we attempt to define the limits
of our knowledge in this area and point out the problems in methods and
measurement that have made interpretation of data difficult.
Current Status of Work in the Area
During the 1960s and 1970s, a number of studies on the CNS consequences
of chronic substance abuse were completed. These were mainly NP investigations, the results of which have been summarized by Grant and Mohns
(1975), Parsons and Farr (1981) Grant and Reed (1985), and Carlin (1986).
In brief, the best designed controlled studies of heavy marijuana use
(Mendelson and Meyer 1972; Grant et al. 1973; Rubin and Comitas 1975;
Miras and Fink 1972; Satz et al. 1976; Stefanis et al. 1977) found no indications that NP abilities were adversely affected. Other clinical studies and
some case reports (Campbell et al. 1971; Kolansky and Moore 1971; Kolansky and Moore 1972; Soueif 1971; Wig and Varma 1977; Mendhiratta
et al. 1978) repotted NP deficits and computed tomography (CT)-measured
atrophy in cannabis users. Several of the latter studies were uncontrolled,
however, or other clinical conditions were prevalent among their subjects,
which could account for the reported dysfunction.
More recently, there have been indications that both acute and longer term
dysfunction in attention, information processing, and memory may result
from marijuana use (Belmore and Miller 1980; Wetzel et al. 1982; Block
and Wittenbom 1984; Hooker and Jones 1987; Page et al. 1988). The
report from Page and colleagues comes from a followup in Costa Rica of
the study originally reported by Satz and associates (1976). In the earlier
study, no significant differences were found to exist among Costa Rican
nationals who had been smoking marijuana heavily for more than a decade
on average and a group of nonusers matched for socioeconomic status. The
followup, however, included both the previously used measures and a new
set of tests designed to assess attention and concentration and the learning
11
and retrieval components of memory. Twenty-seven of the forty-one original users and 30 of 41 original nonusers were successfulIy reevaluated.
Again, there were no between-group differences on the original NP measures and, perhaps more interestingly, there were no meaningful performance
changes between first and second evaluations for either group. The using
group, however, by then having histories of more than 25 years of heavy
cannabis use, was uniformly and significantly more impaired on the new
tests of attention, concentration, and memory. Page and colleagues note
that, although these differences were real and significant, they were sufficiently subtle to have been classified as subclinical. Interestingly, users had
worse social functioning in several areas. They tended to have less
demanding jobs and were more likely to have spent time in prison.
Page and associates do not address the possibility that their cannabis-using
group may have been exposed to greater drug-use- and drug-nonuse-related
risks for NP deficit in the interval between the first and second NP evaluations. As it is frequently the case that U.S. alcoholics and drug abusers are
exposed to greater neuromedical risk (head injury, loss of consciousness,
nutritional deprivation, hepatic disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease) than are nonabusers, and as such events have been shown to explain a significant portion of the variance in NP test results in both alcoholics (Adams and Grant 1986) and polydrug abusers (Grant et al. 1978b), it is
possible that the same confounds might have been operating in this Costa
Rican sample.
Hooker and Jones (1987) administered a series of memory and informationprocessing measures to subjects in a counter-balanced double-blind crossover
design. These subjects were males between 19 and 22 years of age and
averaged 14.8 years of education, with a range from 13 to 17 years. In the
year prior to the experiment, the subjects’ marijuana experience ranged be
tween once per month and once per week. Two subjects had a lifetime frequency of marijuana use of over 1,000 occasions. Subjects were tested
after smoking either one active or one placebo marijuana cigarette. Second
assessments were made 1 to 3 weeks later. Analyses indicated that acute
marijuana intoxication was related to the more frequent appearance of intrusions in a delayed free-recall verbal-memory procedure and to poorer performance on the Stroop color-word interference test.
Although Hooker and colleagues did not focus in this study on residual deleterious effects of marijuana, it is possible that 6 of the 12 subjects (those
who received active cannabis at baseline) actually could have demonstrated
residual effects at followup. If indeed there were residual effects, differences between placebo and cannabis groups might be expected to attenuate or
disappear at followup, resulting in a significant treatment-by-time interaction
in repeated measures analyses. Such a result did not occur, thus there is a
tentative indication that marijuana use will not have residual effects. This
conclusion is not compelling, however, given that the distribution of values
12
for potentially confounding subject attributes, i.e., prior drug and alcohol
use, educational achievement, and IQ, were not described for the marijuanafirst and placebo-first groups. The facts that the subjects smoked only one
marijuana cigarette during the experiment and that the sample was very
small also limit our ability to form generalizable conclusions about residual
effects.
Thus, although the best early work with marijuana suggested that it was a
relatively innocuous agent from a neurological standpoint, the more recent
data tentatively suggest that it may have both acute and residual effects on
some abilities that generally were not assessed in the earlier studies. Data
on residual effects remain inconclusive, however.
Phencyclidine (PCP) was first synthesized in 1956. Used and then abandoned as a surgical anesthetic in humans, PCP has also served as an experimental drug in producing model psychoses and as a veterinary tranquilizer.
It first appeared as an illicit street drug in 1965 and, according to some
national surveys, has been consumed by more than 8 million Americans
(Young et al. 1987). Its application as a surgical anesthetic was marred by
postoperative psychotic reactions and acute agitation. It has frequently been
linked with violent behavior in clinical case reports and in the popular
press, but Brecher and associates (1988) state that, in many of these reports,
other factors that may relate to violent behavior, such as simultaneous intoxication from other substances, are not dealt with. They further suggest that
little empirical data exist that support the putative link between this substance and violence. There is no denying, however, that persons acutely
toxic on this agent can present with a host of bizarre symptoms.
Acutely intoxicated PCP abusers frequently demonstrate both the active (hallucinations, fixed delusions, paranoia) and passive (thought disorder, withdrawal, apathy, catatonia) symptoms of schizophrenia (Javitt 1987). French
(1988) reported that chronic exposure to PCP among rats did not diminish
the drug’s ability to activate mesolimbic neurons, which are thought to be
implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia. He speculates that this absence
of a tolerance effect may partially underlie the biological mechanism by
which chronic use of larger doses of PCP can lead to psychotomimetic
symptoms. These recent findings and others suggest that PCP might provide a more encompassing chemical model for schizophrenia than do the
hallucinogens or the amphetamines.
In early NP reports, PCP abusers demonstrated acute and postacute sensory
and motor disabilities as well as anterograde amnesia (Davies 1961; Luby
et al. 1959; Luisada 1978). PCP-using polydrug abusers appeared in one
study to be more impaired neuropsychologically than polydrug users who
did not use PCP (Ware 1978), while another study of similar design did not
find significant differences (Carlin et al. 1979).
13
In sum, the residual effects of PCP are not understood. PCP must remain,
however, high on the list of substances that might have long-lasting deleterious neurobehavioral effects; the severe acute and subacute (lasting days to
weeks) behavioral disruption it is known to cause make this a plausible
inference. Furthermore, PCP’s lipophilic properties favor its remaining in
the body for prolonged periods, thereby lengthening the potential for longterm toxic effects.
CNS depressants have been associated with postabstinence NP impairment
that resembles the pattern seen among alcoholics (Adams et al. 1975; Judd
and Grant 1975; Bergman et al. 1980; Grant et al. 1978a). Hendler and
colleagues (1980) and Petursson and associates (1983) reported NP impairment in chronic benzodiazepine users on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale, and Golombok and colleagues (1988) found impaired visual-spatial
ability and impairment of sustained attention among British patients prescribed this same class of psychoactive agents for at least 1 year.
Bergman and associates reported, in a followup of their 1980 study (Bergman et al. 1989), that 30 of their original 55 sedative-hypnotic-abusing subjects showed slight but significant improvement in NP functioning 4 to
6 years later. These investigators partitioned their sample on the basis of
relapse vs. abstinence during the interim. While both subgroups improved
significantly on seven out of nine measures at the second evaluation,
relapsed sedative-hypnotic abusers performed more poorly on a block design
measure, on the Trailmaking Test, and on a measure of field dependence
than did the abstinent subgroup. Interestingly, the relapsed group demonstrated greater improvement than the abstinent group on both the Trailmaking and the Witkin Rod and Frame Tests. Bergman and colleagues suggest
that, because of the extremely poor scores obtained at baseline by the
relapsers, they had more room for improvement at second testing. It is also
possible that those who relapsed did so because they were impaired prior to
onset of drug use. Comparisons made of the abusers’ data, both at baseline
and at followup, with socioeconomically matched normative data indicate
that despite the pooled sample within-group improvement, the sedativehypnotic abusers continued to demonstrate significant NP impairment 4 to
6 years after treatment.
Volatile substances are abused recreationally by a relatively small percentage
of the population, but are of significant concern because many persons are
at risk for their effects through contact with such substances as toluene,
acrolein, n-hexane, and methylbutylketone in their occupations or through
the increasing presence of these agents in the ambient environment. The
research so far suggests that some of these substances, particularly toluene,
can produce both neuropsychological and neuroradiological abnormalities
(Arlien-Soborg et al. 1979; Bruhn et al. 1981); others, mostly the ketones,
may cause peripheral neuropathy (see review by Grant and Reed 1985).
14
Animal models of addiction indicate that cocaine and the amphetamines produce more persistent drug-seeking behavior than does any other class of
psychoactive chemical (Gawin and Ellinwood 1988). Thus, it is not surprising that stimulant addiction, to cocaine in particular, has grown rapidly.
Despite this widespread exposure, little is known about long-term effects on
brain function. Some very early studies and clinical case reports described
vasculitis, necrotizing angitis, and cerebrovascular accidents in abusers of
CNS stimulants (Citron et al. 1970; Weiss et al. 1970; Kane et al. 1969).
Rylander (1972) suggested that disturbances in memory, concentration, and
certain types of abstract thinking occurred as long-term sequelae of stimulant abuse, but there were no reports that spoke of stimulant toxicity manifesting as NP impairment following abstinence. Grant and associates
(1978a), for example, found no association between use of CNS stimulants
and NP performance in their sample of 151 polydrug abusers.
On the other hand, human and animal neuropharmacologic studies raise concerns that there may be irreversible CNS effects of stimulant abuse. For
example, long-term administration of stimulants to animals indicates that
there is depression in the mesolimbic and mesofrontal cortical reward systems of the brain. This depression might correspond to the anhedonia
demonstrated during withdrawal in humans (Colpaert et al. 1979; Leith and
Barrett 1976; Kokkinidis and Zacharko 1980). A stimulant-induced supersensitivity of the inhibitory autoreceptors on the dopamine (DA) neuron has
been suggested as the primary neurophysiologic substrate of cocaine withdrawal (Gawin and Ellinwood 1988).
As yet, however, it has not been conclusively shown that there is a longterm or permanent impairment of ability to experience reward because of
chronic perturbation of the dopaminergic system through stimulant abuse.
There is evidence in the animal literature that amphetamine is neurotoxic if
elevated brain levels are sustained for very long. This toxicity can result in
histopathological and neurochemical changes, including degeneration of
nigrostriatal presynaptic DA terminals and striatal DA depletion. Postsynaptic neurons appear to be affected by repeated and sustained exposure to amphetamine as well (Robinson and Becker 1986). In some animals, notably
the cat, DA depletion can persist for up to a year following as few as three
injections (Levine et al. 1980). The issue of whether amphetamines or
cocaine effectively reduce the number of pre- and postsynaptic DA receptors
is a controversial one (see Robinson and Becker 1986 for a comprehensive
review of this area). But, if long-term or permanent changes in the dopaminergic system are a consequence of amphetamine abuse, these changes
could lead to NP and information-processing impairments and to decreased
social and occupational functioning, via decreased ability to anticipate
rewards.
Although some early investigations found NP dysfunction in hallucinogen
abusers, other investigations did not (Cohen and Edwards 1969; McGlothlin
15
et al. 1969; Acord 1972; Wright and Hogan 1972; Acord and Barker 1973).
These early lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) studies were compromised in
many ways (small sample sixes; absence of, mismatched, or inappropriate
control groups; uninterpretable or unreported drug consumption metrics; use
of poorly understood, possibly invalid measurement instruments; and failure
to estimate premorbid ability level of participants). But these contradictory
and unreliable findings, combined with the Collaborative Neuropsychological
Study of Polydrug Users’ (CNSP) failure to find a relationship between
reported hallucinogen use and CNS deficit, suggest that deficit, if it exists,
is more subtle than can be assessed by existing NP measures.
The recreational use of inhalants such as amyl and butyl nitrite has become
more common in the last decade. We are not aware of any data to suggest
direct neurotoxicity associated with the abuse of these substances. The use
of these agents to facilitate sexual enjoyment is commonly acknowledged in
gay subpopulations. HIV infection is prevalent among homosexual men,
and AIDS-related dementia occurs in a smaller subset of these persons. It
is not clear whether the nitrites play any role in facilitating CNS complications in such groups.
Opiates have been studied neuropsychologically since 1974, when Fields and
Fullerton first reported an absence of Halstead Reitan Battery (HRB) performance differences in groups of heroin addicts and medical controls. In a
report by Grant and colleagues (1978a), polydrug users who reported using
a relatively greater amount of opiates, including heroin, opium, and synthetic narcotics, were more likely to be judged impaired on clinical NP
evaluation than polydrug users who used relatively little of this class of
drug. Thus these two early studies present conflicting information on the
effect of opiates on CNS function. Hill and Mikhael’s 1979 report of a 40percent impairment rate in a small sample of heroin abusers came from a
controlled study as well, but did not resolve the issue because of failure to
include data on length of abstinence in the heroin abusers. Rounsaville and
associates (1980) compared NP functions in heroin addicts and epileptics.
Eighty percent of the addicts and 86 percent of the epileptics were classified as impaired, but 43 percent of the heroin addicts had abused significant
levels of other drugs, including alcohol and cocaine. In the end, these
results were also confounded by the fact that only 20 of the 72 addicts
were drug free at the time of testing. In a continuation of this investigation
(Rounsaville et al. 1982), the same sample of heroin addicts was compared
with Comprehensive Employee Training Act (CETA) employees: essentially
no differences were found except that heroin abusers performed better than
the controls on simple motor tasks. The fact that both groups performed in
the mildly impaired range suggests that other factors (e.g., educational
deprivation) needed to be considered in assessing these NP data. More recently, Guerra and associates (1987) assessed attention, memory, and verbal
fluency in a controlled, repeated-measures investigation of NP performance
in 93 opiate-dependent individuals. Testing was accomplished prior to and
16
following a l-week detoxification. Initially, the performance of the opiate
abusers was significantly more impaired than that of the socioeconomically
matched controls. At followup, the opiate addicts showed significant
improvement relative to their first testing and, when compared again with
the first evaluation data obtained from controls, were not significantly different. Since the controls were not retested, however, it is not possible to
discern whether the observed recovery was due to practice effects, to the
controlled withdrawal from narcotics, or to some interaction of the two.
In summary, this brief review indicates that a moderately large body of data
has been collected and reported over the past two decades on the relationship between chronic drug abuse and brain disorder. In spite of some excellent efforts, relatively little is known about long-term NP effects that
goes beyond the facts of acute intoxication and withdrawal. Much of what
is known is tentative and confounded by a host of factors that, if not
addressed in future neurodiagnostic investigations, will leave us in the same
position two decades hence. Bearing this in mind, in the next section we
discuss several conceptual issues central to fostering more definitive results
in the future.
CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
Defining CNS Effects: The Notion of Neurobehavioral Phenomena
The alterations that psychoactive drugs can produce can be appreciated, at
least theoretically, at several levels of abstraction. At the most basic level,
there will be biochemical and macromolecular changes, some evanescent,
some more lasting. Some of these changes might translate into reversible
(loss of dendritic spines; fluid shifts; inflammatory changes; demyelination)
or irreversible (cell loss) structural damage. At the macro level there may
be neurological, cognitive, affective, and behavioral alterations, both reversible and irreversible.
Methods for detecting these events are many. When animal models are
used, increasingly precise information can be obtained in the living organism, as, for example, the relating of single-cell recordings, or samplings of
neurotransmitter products from selected brain regions in behaving, drugtreated animals (Kuczenski and Segal 1989). Such designs move beyond
correlations of antemortem behavior and postmortem neuroanatomy, towards
simultaneous, in vivo observations of behavioral and neurophysiological
changes produced by various psychoactive drugs.
With living human beings, such elegant but invasive “brain-behavior” correlative experiments are obviously infeasible. Therefore, we can only infer
CNS effects through indirect measures. Until recently, NP testing, which
samples behavior thought to be particularly dependent on CNS integrity,
represented the most sensitive noninvasive approach to detecting brain
17
dysfunction. With the advent of advanced electrophysiological techniques,
e.g., brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) and functional neuroradiological methods, e.g., positron emission tomography (PET); single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), it becomes possible to study physicochemical brain changes in vivo, and to relate these to behavior. These techniques permit the term “neurobehavioral” to embrace drug-related CNS phenomena that might be observed from multiple vantage points, including the
neurologic, psychiatric, radiologic, electrophysiologic, and neuropsychologic.
The Natural History Concept as a Guiding Frame of Reference
In medicine, the temporal evolution of a pathologic phenomenon is known
as its natural history. Although the notion that drug-associated neurobehavioral phenomena occur in the context of a natural history is implicit in most
research, the failure to address this concept explicitly has led in the past to
erroneous (or premature) conclusions regarding issues such as the supposed
“safety” of an agent, or, alternatively, its permanent toxicity. We think that
the design of future research in this area will be better served by a conscious and accurate understanding of what is known of the natural history
of drug-related brain disorder.
Several years ago we proposed a general model in time-line format for the
natural history of brain disorder as related to alcohol and drug abuse (figure
1) (Grant et al. 1980). In this model, the basic epochs of the phenomenon
include, in order, a prenatal period, a preexposure period (birth to first
exposure), a latent period, an occult period, a preclinical period, and a clinical period. These six periods are bracketed by conception and death. During both the prenatal and preexposure periods, the model presumes the individual is both healthy and developmentally normal.
The latent period begins at the time of first exposure to the toxic substance.
Between this first exposure and the observation of the first clinical neurobehavioral signs, the first neurotoxic event occurs (destruction of dopaminergic cells or microinfarcts following amphetamine use). This first toxic
event may occur sooner or later following initiation of use depending on
(1) the toxicity of the substance and (2) the relative amount consumed over
time. Theoretically it is possible that this prodromal (latent, occult, and
preclinical) period could extend indefinitely if a very mildly toxic substance
were used infrequently by the healthy individual, i.e., having no predisposing risk or vulnerability.
Viewing the previously reviewed substance abuse literature in the context of
the natural history model points out that most of what we know now relates
only to the short-term effects of drug abuse, i.e., to drug effects on brain
function during acute intoxication, during the period directly following cessation of use (abstinence), and during the immediate postabstinence phase.
Only with respect to alcoholism have we even begun to appreciate the
18
FIGURE 1. Model for the natural history of neurotoxin-induced brain
disorder
KEY: C=conception; B=birth; A(X)=age at first exposure to drug; A(Y)=age at which first irreversible
neuronal changes begin; A(Y’)=age at first positive findings on mast sensitive test; A(Z)=age at
first clinical signs; and D=death.
complexities of long-term effects. Even with alcoholism, much of what has
been reported has come from cross-sectional rather than longitudinal investigations or from a few followup studies from which it may be premature to
generalize.
Without such prospective studies, guided by a natural history framework, we
shall fail to develop information that can be ordered in time, an essential
prerequisite to the testing of causal models.
Reversible and Irreversible Deficits
The natural history model (figure 1) was made intentionally simple for didactic purposes. For instance, it permitted no recovery from CNS-related
substance abuse effects. However, recent studies on the NP sequelae of
alcoholism indicate that there is recovery of some NP function in some
alcoholics with continuing abstinence (abstinence beyond a few weeks). We
have observed that long-term (minimum 18 months) abstinent alcoholics do
not differ on most NP measures from age- and education-matched controls
and that such long-term abstainers are significantly less impaired than recently detoxified alcoholics (Grant et al. 1979; Grant et al. 1984). These
cross-sectional studies are supported by more recent longitudinal data. On
2-year followup evaluation of a sample divided into four groups (continuing
alcoholic drinkers, short- and long-term sober alcoholics, and controls), continuing drinkers were rated as neuropsychologically worse more often than
was the short-term sober group. In the short-term sober group, 16 percent
were rated as improved, while in the continuing drinker group, only 9 percent were so rated. Interestingly, 19 percent of the long-term sober group
(abstinent by then a minimum of 4 years) showed significant improvement.
19
Such data raise the possibility of very long-term, slow recovery (Grant et al.
1987).
Other reports of NP and CT-measured recovery among abstinent alcoholics
(Adams et al. 1980; Carlen et al. 1978; Carlen and Wilkinson 1980,
Wilkinson and Carlen 1980a; Wilkinson and Carlen 1980b; Wilkinson and
Carlen 1983; Wilkinson 1987; Brandt et al. 1983; Fabian and Parsons 1983;
Goldman 1983a; Goldman 1983b; Goldman et al. 1985; Grant et al. 1986;
Grant 1987) and the hint that NP recovery may occur among polydrug users
who maintain abstinence (Grant et al. 1978a) suggest that longer term
recovery may occur for substance abusers as well. These data indicate that
the simple natural history time line originally proposed needs refinement.
Through that refinement process we can determine whether recovery may be
total partial permanent, or temporary.
A Proposed Nosology for Subclinical and Reversible Neurobehavioral
Disorders Associated with Substance Abuse
The cross-sectional and, especially, the longitudinal data on NP recovery in
alcoholism reviewed above indicate that at least some neurobehavioral disturbance is slowly reversible. Since there is no nomenclature in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM III-R) (American
Psychiatric Association 1987) under which these phenomena are described,
we have proposed for future revisions (DSM IV) criteria along the lines
shown in tables 1 and 2. These criteria, first presented for alcoholism in
Grant et al. (1986) and Grant et al. (1987), will permit the diagnosis of
intermediate duration (slowly reversible) neurobehavioral disorders associated
with substance abuse. Additionally, since some substance-abuse-related
CNS disorders may never reverse fully, yet may stop short of major
impairment typified by the label “dementia,” we recommend a category of
subclinical or subsyndromal neurobehavioral disorder (table 3).
Premorbid Status of Substance Abusers
Do persons who become substance abusers, whether of alcohol or other psychoactive drugs, come from a subsample of the population that would
appear neurobehaviorally abnormal if examined before they were exposed to
the drug? To answer this question would require prospective longitudinal
studies that begin data collection in at-risk samples before substance abuse
begins.
Most neurodiagnostic studies on substance abuse have been cross-sectionally
organized. In cross-sectional NP studies in which premorbid status is
thought to be important but not concurrently evolving, it has been typical to
rely on markers such as educational achievement or history of early childhood risk factors in an attempt to control for these influences. Markers
such as these are better than none at all. These retrospectively obtained
20
TABLE 1. Diagnostic criteria for intermediate-duration neurobehavioral
disorder associated with substance abuse
Presumptive Diagnosis
1.
Neurobehavioral disorder is evident following prolonged heavy
ingestion of the substance.
2.
Disorder is evident as early as the first week of abstinence and
persists for months or even several years after cessation of
substance ingestion.
3.
Disorder is not due to other causes of slowly reversible organic
mental disorder (for example, head injury, hypothyroidism).
4.
The severity and features of the disorder do not meet the criteria
for delirium or dementia.
Definitive Diagnosis
1.
Repeated evaluations show improvement in neurobehavioral disorder
related to abstinence or reduced consumption.
SOURCE: Grant et al. 1986, copyright 1986, American Psychiatric Association.
TABLE 2. Definition of neurobehavioral disorder
A.
Subjective sense of reduced intellectual acuity or capacity (more difficult to learn new things, remember, handle more complex information)
or observations by significant others that the individual is more forgetful or has shown other evidence of intellectual decline.
B.
One of the following objective signs:
1.
Neurocognitive deficit (abstracting ability, perceptual motor skills,
memory below expectations for age- and education-matched controls) observed on structured neuropsychiatric exam or neuropsychological testing.
2.
Laboratory evidence of structural or functional brain abnormality
indicated by one or more of the following:
a.
computed-tomographic or magnetic-resonance-scan evidence of
abnormally widened sulci or ventricular dilatation compared
with age-matched norms;
b.
electroencephalographic evidence of diffuse disturbance (slowing of alpha, increase of theta activity); and
c.
abnormalities on dynamic brain imaging (PET, SPECT) compared to age-, education-, and sex-matched norms.
SOURCE: Grant et al. 1986. copyright 1986. American Psychiatric Association.
21
TABLE 3. Diagnostic criteria for subclinical neurobehavioral disorder
associated with substance abuse
Presumptive Diagnosis
1.
Neurobehavioral disorder is evident following prolonged heavy consumption of the substance.
2.
Disorder is evident a minimum of 1 year after cessation of
consumption.
3.
Disorder is not due to other causes of subclinical dementia (late
sequelae of head injury, permanent effects of hypothyroidism).
4.
The severity and features of the disorder do not meet the criteria
for delirium or dementia.
Definitive Diagnosis
1.
Repeated evaluation shows no significant improvement in neurobehavioral disorder in relation to continuous abstinence beyond
1 year.
SOURCE: Grant et al. 1986, copyright 1986, American Psychiatric Association.
predictors, however, probably cannot have the validity of concurrently
witnessed events.
Thus, in spite of the significant financial and operational challenges, the
birth to earth (more practically, midchildhood to early adulthood) prospective study of persons at risk for substance abuse offers the most convincing
means to answer questions important to the natural history of brain disorder
as it relates to abuse. Key questions related to the predrug-use status of
such individuals, such as whether drug abuse causes brain damage, or brain
damage causes drug abuse, which have obscured the conclusions of earlier
studies, could be answered directly. Even though prospective designs would
be difficult to implement, it is worth the effort to attempt them. The determination of outcomes for different patterns of substance abuse, while
accounting for coexisting factors known to influence brain function, is of
inestimable importance to the development of treatment and prevention.
MEASUREMENT CONSIDERATIONS
Useful, important, and scientifically well-founded theories cannot be evaluated properly when basic measurement factors, on which evaluation of such
theories depends, are ignored. Research on the neuropsychology of substance abuse has sometimes suffered from insufficient concern for the basic
psychometric principles of validity, reliability, sensitivity, and specificity.
22
Although many readers will be well versed in these matters, a brief reminder of these concepts may be useful.
Validity
For our purposes, neurobehavioral strategies chosen to investigate CNS
effects of drugs should demonstrate three forms of validity. First, the procedure should have construct validity, that is, it should be known to measure the ability or property it is thought to measure. For example, the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which might validly
reflect certain aspects of personality, is not a valid measure of attention,
memory, or other NP abilities. Similarly, digit span, though an NP test, is
not a test of memory in the usual sense of the word, since performance on
digit span tends to be unrelated to performance on traditional tests of
memory; furthermore, patients with amnesia tend to perform reasonably well
on digit span.
Second, procedures should also have concurrent validity. If NP tests are
used to infer brain damage, then performance on such tests should correlate
with other, nonpsychometric indicators of brain damage, e.g., other
behavioral measures, neurologic examinations or neuroradiologic findings.
This requirement puts constraints on the overly enthusiastic use of new and
theoretically interesting applications. For example, computer-assisted performance measures might have appeal in developing theories of information
processing. But until they are shown to have concurrent validity, their use
as the sole indicator of CNS disturbance in substance abuse research would
be ill-advised.
Third, the neurobehavioral techniques should have predictive validity. The
term predictive validity has been used in several ways, sometimes with connotations resembling concurrent validity. For this discussion, we prefer to
limit this concept to temporal prediction, that is, the method in question
should be capable of predicting a neurobehaviorally relevant outcome. For
example, poor performance on certain very sensitive NP tests may occur in
the absence of other indicators of CNS disturbance at a particular point in
time. If the test is valid, however, then continued exposure to the same
toxic influence should lead ultimately to abnormality on other indicators,
behavioral, electrophysiologic, or radiologic.
Reliability
Since it is through longitudinal repeated-measures studies that the residual
effects of chronic drug abuse on brain function will be best illuminated, it
is necessary to consider measurement reliability before choosing instruments
for assessment. Reliability in this case refers to a test’s consistency or correlation with itself. Internal reliability refers to the degree to which the
scores for any randomly selected subset of a test’s items would correlate
23
with the score obtained for all the items. Stability, or “test-retest” reliability, refers to the degree to which scores obtained on the same test over a
specified period of time correlate with one another.
High test reliability-stability does not guarantee that a test will be valid, but
low reliability-stability does guarantee low test validity. In general, test-retest reliability decreases as a function of the interval between testings and
increases between early adolescence and adulthood as CNS development
reaches asymptote. Although it is important to consider inter-item reliability
when selecting instruments for research purposes, it is test stability that is
more relevant in the context of repeated-measures research in substance
abuse.
It is important that the time-related variability in performance on a test be
well understood before the test is employed in repeated-measures fashion.
It is not necessary to select measures that do not vary from one point in
time to another, all other factors being equal (most NP tests are subject to
learning by persons who are not afflicted with rapidly progressive degenerative diseases of the CNS or subject to other significant trauma between assessments). It is necessary, however, to understand a test’s properties with
respect to a subject’s ability to learn strategies and tactics for succeeding at
it, after repeated exposures. Repeat performances on tests that are vulnerable to learning are interpretable, but only by taking into account the
expected learning curve.
In repeated-measures studies in which it is desirable to minimize learning
and for which the interest interval is relatively short, alternative forms can
be used to manage the learning curve, so that the specifics of a test are
manipulated but not the strategic concept. Needless to say, alternate forms
must be highly intercorrelated with one another to maintain a clear concept
of what is being measured.
One might also choose a learning saturation model, in which the same or
highly correlated alternate forms are readministered frequently enough at
baseline to bring the learning curve to asymptote before treatment is implemented. If alternate forms are used, scores when asymptote is achieved
must leave room for improvement as a function of treatment (recovery).
Despite such precautions, we find that “practice effect” remains a formidable issue; in one experiment, we noted an effect for time even after a
dozen administrations of a brief battery of tests containing alternate forms
over an 8-week assessment (Huey et al., unpublished data).
Sensitivity and Specificity
The usefulness of valid measures will be circumscribed by their ability to
detect both strong and weak signals (sensitivity) and to detect only those
signals that are relevant, ignoring “noise” (specificity). Tests that are highly
24
sensitive will correctly identify brain dysfunction in most persons who have
it but will, to varying degrees, produce false alarms. Highly specific tests,
which trade off sensitivity for accuracy, may produce misses.
In neuropsychology, sensitivity and specificity are influenced by test difficulty and complexity. Difficulty refers to the demand placed on information processing of a specific type. For example, one can have hard and
easy motor tests, span tests, and discrimination tests. More difficult tests
can be sensitive to subtle dysfunction, but may be less specific.
Complexity refers to the variety of information, or information-processing
strategies, that must be deployed. A problem-solving test, such as the Category test from the HRB is one example. Greater complexity can correlate
positively with higher sensitivity and negatively with specificity. That is,
sensitive tests generally measure abilities that are highly multidetermined, in
the sense that successful performance may require the coordination of several more or less complex mental operations, which in turn may depend upon
the neurobiological resources of several different loci in the brain. Specific
tests often measure more discrete abilities, which are in turn often more
highly localizable in the brain.
General Vs. Specific Indicators
Some NP tests, usually those with high complexity, can be seen to be
“general” indicators of cerebral dysfunction, in the sense that virtually any
form of brain disease, be it generalized or localized, will be reflected in
poorer performance. The Category test is a case in point. Few truly braindamaged persons score well on this test. Tests that are more specific, for
example, word fluency, will tend to reflect left anterior frontal lobe function
and can be normal in brain pathology that does not involve that region.
There is obviously room in the field for the employment of both sensitive
and specific measures, provided that their respective propensities toward
false positive and false negative classification are taken into account. We
would argue, however, that our knowledge regarding the NP consequences
of the abuse of many classes of drugs is relatively limited at this point.
Therefore, we think the field would profit most at the outset from the
employment of sensitive tests that can provide broad parametric coverage
across a wide spectrum of intellectual abilities.
Normative Samples
Except for test development per se, tests with known psychometric
properties, i.e., tests that have proven criterion and predictive validity and
demonstrated reliability across time (for repeated-measures designs) are
preferable to inventing new tests or employing unstudied variations of
existing measures. Adopting well-studied measures, for which age- and
2.5
education-stratified normative data exist, makes sense even when studies
include separately enrolled control groups or when study subjects are used
as their own controls. The existence of norms for behavioral tests allows
the investigator to account for important sources of variation in performance
while affording better opportunities for cross-study comparisons.
Selection of tests and test batteries will depend upon the research questions
to be answered. To diagnose and describe the features of adaptive change
related to drug abuse, a battery that provides broad parametric coverage is
needed. For some hypotheses, however, such as in studies of short-term
memory and learning, this approach may be inappropriate.
Among NP measures, the HRB and the Luria-Nebraska, although not the
only normed test batteries in existence, are probably the two most frequently employed in a variety of clinical research settings. The facts that the
HRB subtest scores have been normed in the past decade (Heaton et al.
1986; Filley et al. 1989; Braff et al., in press), that its whole set of scores
can be rated clinically by trained neuropsychologists (Heaton et al. 1981;
Grant et al. 1978b; Grant et al. 1979; Grant et al. 1982), and that it provides, in the form of the expanded HRB (Grant et al. 1987), coverage of
the spectrum of NP abilities recommend its use. The HRB takes from 5 to
8 hours to administer completely, and this has been seen as a shortcoming
because of concerns about fatigue. We think that subject stress and time of
administration, not to mention increased costs related to increased staff
labor, are valid concerns. However, through an appropriate division of testing sessions into smaller time blocks, the full HRB has been used without
incident even in severely ill COPD patients (Grant et al. 1982), as well as
by multiple drug users (Grant et al. 1978b). The lengthy time it takes to
complete the expanded HRB is offset by the richness of the data it provides, as well as by its common use in many distinct clinical samples.
Comparability across clinical samples is a highly desirable outcome, which
has been achieved too infrequently. When accomplished, however, information can be obtained on brain-behavior relationships, which may be difficult
for any one study to accomplish. Grant et al. (1987) describes results from
merging of HRB data taken from two multicenter studies.
Standardized Methods of Administration
Another consideration related to the selection of measures is the notion of
standardized methods of administration. A test can be valid, reliable, and
sensitive; but if it is administered in a nonstandard manner, the resultant
scores will reflect variance unrelated to the subject’s ability, thereby
confounding interpretation.
A simple examiner-provided prompt during the delayed recall of previously
learned information can change a free-recall memory paradigm into a
recognition paradigm, which tends to be easier than the free recall of
26
information. The speed at which the pages are turned in the booklet version of the Category test can drastically change the number of correct
responses and fail to reflect the subject’s true abstracting ability.
Choosing appropriate tests and assuring their reliable administration can be
challenging to any single laboratory; multicenter studies face the additional
difficulty of establishing interlaboratory reliability. One valuable precaution,
employed in several large multicenter studies (the CNSP, the Nocturnal
Oxygen Therapy Trial, and the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial)
involved the centralized training of neuropsychometrists at the outset. To
maintain consistency, senior neuropsychometrists from coordinating centers
periodically performed site visits at each data collection center to observe
actual testing and to critique examiners. In this way, standardized methods
were established and maintained over the course of the investigations. In
the future, similar vigilance will be required to establish confidence in our
knowledge of cognitive functioning in substance abusers. It will be difficult
to achieve such confidence if different investigators, apparently using the
same tests, turn out to have used different methods of administration or
interpretation.
These psychometric considerations are of obvious but often insufficiently acknowledged importance. Decisions regarding whether to fund future proposals in substance abuse research should in part be based on the degree of
soundness of the psychometric foundations of the measures proposed, as
well as on the commitment by investigators to follow standardized methods
of administration.
CONFOUNDS AND COFACTORS NOT RELATED TO
MEASUREMENT
Figure 2 is a structural model depicting some of the factors that neuropsychologists have wme to understand during the past 30 years as having
influence on NP performance at any point in a subject’s lifetime (Grant
1987). The influence of some of these factors has been demonstrated
empirically, e.g., age and education. Others are as yet only theoretically
associated with brain-behavior relationships, e.g., “constitution,” genetic
endowment. In this model, influences on NP function are multiple, complex, and interactive; any investigation, regardless of design or of clinical
population studied, must control for or at least consider these factors, if
results from such studies are to be unambiguous.
Some factors that will need to be taken into consideration in future research
are demographic in nature, some ate related to the metrics utilized to express drug consumption, and some are associated with unique characteristics
of substance-abusing populations.
27
FIGURE 2.
Variables to consider in any causal model of alcoholassociated neuropsychological deficit
Age and Education
Empirical evidence shows that the demographic variables of age and education are, by themselves, strongly predictive of NP performance (Finlayson
et al. 1977; Parsons and Prigatano 1978; Heaton et al. 1986, Filley et al.
1989). Thus, to the extent possible, we must control for these factors in
research. Age and educational status of individuals are also likely to influence whether or not they abuse alcohol or other substances, and at what
level. -l-he existence and level of substance abuse may in turn affect educational achievement and social position, if the abuse begins early enough.
The point is that, while both demographics and substance abuse are related
to NP performance, they are also related to each other, and therefore may
28
relate to NP status directly, indirectly, or interactively, in fairly complex
ways.
The problem of controlling for age or education is not one that is generally
solvable through after-the-fact statistical manipulation. In some earlier
controlled studies of alcoholism, in which nonalcoholics were better educated than alcoholic subjects, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was
employed in an attempt to rectify the case-control mismatch. The problems
here were, first, that the strict assumptions underlying the appropriate use of
the ANCOVA procedure were sometimes violated; and, second, that
ANCOVA often undercorrects, so that persisting group differences might
still be a function of the wvariate (Adams et al. 1985). An additional
complication arises because the true meaning of the wvariate score, especially in the case of education, may be complex. For instance, are subjects
poorly educated because of (a) attendance at poor schools, (b) lack of financial support for college, (c) absence of opportunity, (d) poor adult models,
(e) poor native intellectual endowment, or (f) early brain insults (Adams
et al. 1985)? There are other cautions for the application of statistical control, but they amount to an admonition that preexisting study and control
group differences along these demographic dimensions are to be avoided.
Multiple Substance Abuse
In Grant and colleagues’ 1978a study of 151 polydrug abusers, correlations
of .3 and above were found for 11 of 15 possible pairs of substance
classes. This indicated that a significant portion of the sample did indeed
use more than one drug at abuse levels. While this is not surprising, given
that multiple substance abusers constituted the target population, similar
findings were noted in a group of medical students whose intensity of drug
use was much lower-i.e., with the possible exception of use of alcohol and
marijuana, those who indicated experience with any other single drug tended
to have experience with numerous other drugs (Rochford et al. 1977).
More recent investigations of the prevalence of multiple vs. single drug
abuse continue to show that most drug abusers employ more than one substance (Mehrabian and Straubinger 1989; Rainone et al. 1987). This means
that, in efforts to understand the neurobehavioral consequences of a particular drug, researchers must be prepared to contend with the additive or interactive effects of other substances. Data must be gathered in a manner conducive to effective use of multivariate approaches.
Quantitation of Drug Use
Multivariate assessment works best with interval or continuous data derived
from estimates of consumption levels that yield nontrivial distributions. To
collect such data, studies need to use structured-interview questionnaires
administered by trained personnel. The collection of categorical data on
drug use (yes-no or low, moderate, or heavy) is a less satisfactory
29
alternative for several reasons. For one thing, the meaning of such classification within, as well as between, studies is usually obscure. In past
reports, alcohol use, for example, has been described categorically; i.e., subjects are designated as heavy, moderate, light, or social drinkers. If these
terms are not operationally defined, e.g., grams or ounces of ethanol consumed in a specified time period, then it becomes difficult to determine
potential dose-effect or quantity-frequency relationships within the study
and difficult to compare findings from different studies.
Whereas yes-no responses can be useful as classification factors in multivariate statistical procedures, they cannot legitimately serve as dependent
variables in the analysis of variance model, because they are not continuous.
Using a yes-no response to create types or subtypes has its place in substance abuse research, but for questions relating to the dose-effect relationship, such lower order data can only create additional cells and increase
degrees of freedom. The often impractical solution to this problem is
enrollment of larger numbers of subjects. Finally, lower order categorical
and ordinal data can always be derived from higher order continuous data,
while the reverse is not true.
Attempting to quantitate consumption from the outset is a better choice even
if it represents only an imperfect estimate of consumption. Clearly, error
will be introduced by forgetting (heightened by drug-induced acute or
chronic cognitive deficit) or motivated distortion. Nevertheless, reports by
alcoholics of their wnsumption indicate that such estimates can be reasonably accurate (Fine et al. 1978; Maisto et al. 1979; Sobel and Sobel 1978;
Rohan 1976). The value of the quantitative approach has also been underscored by successful cross-study comparisons in the alcohol literature
(Adams et al. 1981).
To keep the number of cells in multivariate statistical procedures to a manageable minimum, use of many specific abusable agents can be reduced
through a table of equivalencies into several classes. For example, in the
CNSP, the sedative class included all the barbiturates, methaqualone, ethchlorvynol, methyprylon, glutethimide, all of the benzodiazepines, and
chloral hydrate. All the stimulants were reduced to milligrams of dextroamphetamine. The hallucinogens, even though known to act on the CNS in
different ways, were reduced to occasions of use.
Examples of aspects of drug consumption that should be recorded include
dates of first and last use (which yields duration of use); frequency of use
(per day, per week, per month) during different epochs in a subject’s life;
quantities or dosages typically used; duration of periods of intercurrent
abstinence between first and last use; amount consumed per occasion, per
day, week, or month during the period when use was maximal; and duration
of the peak use period.
30
Types of Preparations and Methods of Ingestion
It may be useful to obtain some notion of preferred drug or drugs and some
notion of the relative priority given by the subject to the various classes of
drugs abused (ranked order of preference vs. ranked order of actual use; or
primary use of pharmaceutically manufactured chemicals vs. primary use of
street or illicitly manufactured substances such as methamphetamine or any
of the so-called “designer” drugs).
It is important to document the route of administration, since there are differential risks to the CNS from different methods of use. The varieties of
ways in which polydrug users from the CNSP reported introducing the
many drugs they used into their bodies were impressive. Oral ingestion of
drugs that came in pill or capsule form was most common, but nonpharmaceutically manufactured methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and various
street barbiturates were frequently repotted to have been injected both intravenously and subcutaneously. Of wurse for marijuana, smoking was the
preferred method, but Vietnam veterans reported smoking heroin as well,
when the powdered substance was sprinkled on marijuana or even on ordinary cigarettes. Heroin, crystal methamphetamine, and cocaine were all
reported to have been insufflated. One individual reported manufacturing
his own amphetamine suppositories, and several devotees of hallucinogens
reported introducing LSD, in solution, through eyedrops.
The IV route can add CNS risks secondary to introduction of infectious
agents or impurities into the circulatory system. Currently, the possibility of
infection with HIV, which can result in a dementing disorder, must be considered seriously in the neurobehavioral evaluation of the IV drug user.
In addition, illicitly manufactured drugs may be bound by filler substances
that do not dissolve properly. If injected, such particulate matter may wind
up lodged in the lungs and serve as foci for infection or microemboli to the
CNS. These can cause small structural lesions observable through magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) scanning. The so-called “rush” associated with
the injection of crystal methamphetamine or cocaine is actually an assault
on the heart and on the cerebral vascular system, which can result in both
microinfarcts and frank, full-blown cerebrovascular accidents. Spasm of
cerebral vessels and small aneurysms have also been associated with IV
amphetamine administration.
Indirect Indicators of Drug Immersion
Amount of drug consumed and frequency of use within a defined time
frame are two benchmarks of drug immersion. Other benchmarks are behaviors whose occurrence can be used to infer the effect of drug use on a
person’s life. These qualities might be referred to as the biosocial concommitants of drug use. Some of these biosocial characteristics have shown
31
promise in predicting differences in NP status. For example Carlin and colleagues (1980) classified 79 polydrug-abusing subjects who were part of the
CNSP as either “streetwise” or “straight,” based on whether they appeared
to abuse drugs for self-medication or for recreation. Multivariate analyses
confirmed the presence of two different types of neuropsychologically
impaired polydrug users in the sample. Streetwise subjects abused larger
amounts of most substances, alcohol and heroin in particular. Their NP
impairment was more likely to be related to the amount of alcohol and
heroin reported. Straight subjects abused fewer classes of drugs, but were
more likely to report high levels of CNS depressant use; additionally, they
had significantly greater premorbid and concurrent medical risk scores.
Their NP impairments tended to be related to CNS depressant use. This
study pointed out that the earlier findings of no association between alcohol
abuse and NP impairment in the same sample of polydrug users reported by
Grant et al. (1978a) may have been premature, perhaps because, in the
aggregated sample, the relationship was obscured. The typologies identified
by Carlin and associates point to the broader information base that may be
required to develop better models of neurotoxicity associated with drug
abuse.
Premorbid and Concurrent Medical Risk
The structural model presented in figure 2 points out that NP performance
can be adversely affected, sometimes permanently, by many illnesses and
trauma. Sources of NP morbidity can include perinatal and early childhood
illness or injury, early childhood and latency age learning disability, loss of
consciousness due to head injury or other experience such as near-drowning
or drug overdose at any time, exposure to environmental toxins such as carbon monoxide or petrochemical solvents, and other neurological, hepatic, or
metabolic disease. Major psychiatric illness likewise needs to be taken into
account in studies of substance abuse, because of the high prevalence of
psychopathology among substance abusers and because the negative effect
that serious psychiatric illness can have on NP performance may be difficult
to distinguish from drug effects alone.
That NP impairment in alcoholics may be explained as much by exposure
to such medical events as by the potential direct neurotoxicity of alcohol
has been reported by many groups (De Obaldia and Parsons 1984; Goldstein
et al. 1983; Loberg 1986; Tarter et al. 1984a; Tarter et al. 1984b; Tarter
et al., this volume; Smith and Smith 1977; Ryan and Butters 1984; Rehmstrom et al. 1977; Gilberstadt et al. 1980; Irwin et al. 1989; Butters et al.
1987; Grant et al. 1984; Adams and Grant 1984). NP function in substance
abusers has been shown to be similarly affected by premorbid medical risk
exposure. In 151 polydrug abusers from the CNSP sample (Grant et al.
1978b), 4 medical risk items accounted for 20 percent of the variance in
Halstead’s Impairment Index.
32
It should also be remembered that such neuromedical risk need not be independent of drug abuse. Rather, the drug abuse lifestyle is likely to expose
users to such added risk, e.g., head injury or HIV exposure, further complicating interpretation of NP outcome.
Attrition
Although polydrug-abusing subjects who were not successfully followed up
during the CNSP (Grant et al. 1978a) were neuropsychologically indistinguishable at baseline from those who were successfully reevaluated at 3
months postbaseline, they were less well educated and apt to have abused
larger amounts of sedative hypnotic drugs. Given the finding in this study
of a significant baseline association between abuse of depressants and NP
dysfunction, it is possible that the unfollowed subjects, perhaps having a
less substantial native endowment, as suggested by their lower educational
achievement, would ultimately have diverged from that part of the group
that was followed successfully in terms of the incidence of NP impairment.
The CNSP experience points out that selective attrition wuld influence the
results of any repeated measures investigation. It also points out that attrition is probably an unavoidable fact in substance-abusing samples, for many
reasons. It is well known that this population tends to be very mobile.
Subjects involved in criminal behavior might remain in hiding to avoid
contact with the criminal justice system. Those whose drug use has led to
the development of psychopathological syndromes may become sequestered
in the mental-health-care delivery system.
Clearly, longitudinal studies must be acutely concerned with minimizing
attrition. Crucial to minimizing attrition is budgeting for adequate numbers
of well-trained and properly paid followup workers. Such persons need to
understand the drug use subculture as well as the scientific mission of the
project. They should be able to move about inside the subculture, to keep
track of, contact, and reenroll subjects who are needed for further evaluation. Investigative groups need to request and set aside sufficient funds for
encouraging and rewarding subject compliance with the followup protocol.
Even the wiliest and most accomplished followup workers will fail if they
can do nothing but appeal to the noblest instincts of their subjects to obtain
compliance.
It is useful to think of successful followup as emanating from, first, good
subject retention policies, which seek to maintain contact with subjects so
that they do not get lost; and second, astute subject-locating procedures that
help reestablish contact with persons who, for one reason or another, do get
lost to followup. A specific and detailed set of followup and subject-retention procedures needs to be built in (and budgeted for) in all longitudinal
studies of substance abuse. It can be organized around the principle of
employing the easiest, most efficient retention tactics first, followed by the
33
successively more difficult and time-consuming search tactics. Figure 3
shows a followup tracking algorithm depicted in flowchart style, developed
in our Veterans Administration-based study on alcohol abuse and NP
impairment. The depicted path generally might apply to reestablishing contact with subjects who are already lost rather than to maintaining contact
with subjects whose whereabouts are known. Following such a path systematically and persistently will ultimately yield higher followup rates.
Pursuing followup in any less systematic way will guarantee lower subject
retention and compromise ultimate interpretation of findings.
FIGURE 3. Followup studies: Subject-tracking flow chart
34
SUMMARY OF CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
Future researchers would do well to think in global concepts about their
work before designing their protocols. The many and complex interacting
subsystems of the brain, appreciated by an increasingly sophisticated array
of neurodiagnostic techniques, can be described in terms of “neurobehavioral” phenomena. An understanding of drug abuse effects in terms of the
natural history model can provide a conceptual base from which to work.
It is possible that neurobehavioral abnormalities found among long-term
chronic substance abusers may be reversible; these questions of reversibility
are legitimate and important, given the data on NP recovery among
alcoholics.
We have attempted to focus on methodological solutions rather than merely
report the many methodological problems that limit current knowledge of
the CNS consequences of substance abuse. Future investigations will fail to
clarify the important issues if the principles of measurement are not borne
in mind by researchers in any neurobehavioral discipline, including neuropsychology. Controlling for a complex array of premorbid and intercurrent
neuromedical, socioeconomic, and demographic influences on neurobehavioral status will make future investigations more difficult. But ignoring the
need to account for these sources of variance would leave us with a confusion of contradictory findings and an inadequate increase in sorely needed
knowledge.
NEW METHODS
Having reviewed the conceptual and methodological issues that seem relevant to investigations of substance abuse effects on cerebral functioning, we
will review a series of neurodiagnostic methods that, to date, have seen
only limited application in substance abuse research. In general, we discuss
them to stimulate interest among researchers and to suggest that several or
all of these methods could be brought together in assessment of the same
sample to shed light on the important links between dynamic and structural
CNS changes and external behavioral deficits.
Methods for Investigating Brain Structure
Methods for appreciating the structure of the human brain in vivo include
CT and MRI. Both methods create digital as well as negative film images
of the brain (and other parts of the body). The digital images are produced
first and may be stored on magnetic tape. The film images are then
produced by the translation of the digitally recorded data. The principle
underlying CT is that different tissue and fluid types have differing x-ray
absorption rates. This absorption rate variation allows for a photographic
reconstruction of those tissues exposed to x-rays. MRI relies on the fact
that, in the presence of a magnetic field, the nuclei of various atoms present
35
in the human body can be made to absorb and emit electromagnetic energy.
These emissions reflect various components of atomic movement after they
are perturbed by radiofrequency waves; such movement depends in turn on
the molecules in which such atoms are located. As different tissues have
different chemical compositions, it is possible to translate digitally recorded
information on changes in atomic movement into film images.
CT is the older, less expensive, and more frequently utilized technology.
Its limitations relative to MRI are that it exposes patients to radiation and
its images lack the resolution of MRI and can be confounded by bone artifact. MRI images are better resolved than CT images, permitting greater
visual discrimination of white and grey matter and of distinct neuroanatomical structures. It is also possible with MRI to obtain brain images in axial,
sagittal, and coronal planes; CT provides only axial images. The major
limitations of MRI are that it is much more costly than CT, patients are
placed in a relatively confined tubelike structure during the procedure,
which may provoke claustrophobic reactions in at-risk persons; and the
equipment produces a knocking sound that some people find disconcerting.
Depending on the number of different planes in the protocol, MRI procedures may take more than an hour to complete.
In the clinical setting, film images from both CT and MRI procedures are
reviewed, usually by trained neuroradiologists, to determine the absence,
presence, nature, and severity of abnormalities and their locations within the
brain. When clinical inspection is incorporated into formal research procedures, ordinal scales rating various tissue and fluid parameters are frequently
applied. Ventricular size, degree of sulcal atrophy in various locations, and,
at times, summary indices such as the ratio of ventricular width to total
brain width are reported. MRI, because of its greater resolution, permits a
greater appreciation for abnormalities in grey vs. white matter and reveals
areas of high signal intensity, sometimes referred to as “UBOs” or unidentified bright objects. Increased resolution also makes the MRI procedure
more sensitive to very small or punctate lesions (small spots) of varying
etiology in parenchymal (functional organ) tissue, which CT might fail to
reveal.
To our knowledge, formal investigations of the stability of these methods in
depicting the structural status of the brain over time do not appear in the
literature. The repeated exposure of healthy persons to the radiation of CT
and the cost of obtaining serial MRIs from such persons impose constraints
on such work. It is well known, however, that even the healthy brain
changes with increasing age, and these changes are consistently reflected in
reports obtained from samples of differing ages.
Of increasing interest has been the development of image-processing computer software for both CT- and MRI-generated data. These algorithms can
produce objective volume estimates of normal and abnormal brain structures
36
and fluid compartments. MRI algorithms, because of the procedure’s greater resolution, can produce tissue data for grey and white matter as well as
distinguish between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and tissue.
CT- and MRI-imaging studies of substance abusers are desperately needed.
For example, the literature includes many reports of the catastrophic
consequences of amphetamine and cocaine-related cerebrovascular accidents
(Levine et al. 1987; Kaye and Fainstat 1987; Golbe and Merkin 1986;
Chasnoff et al. 1986, Brust and Richter 1977; Schwartz and Cohen 1984;
Mody et al. 1987). These complications include subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebral ischemia, and stroke. Clinical reports have
revealed such abnormalities in as many as 31 separate cases to date (Jacobs
et al. 1989). In all of these reports, CT provided evidence for various
structural insults to the brain.
Although such catastrophic consequences are important, future investigations
that employ neuroradiological methods ought to focus on substance abusers
who escape these more drastic effects. Investigations should be concerned
initially with describing the presence, absence, and incidence of microinfarcts, microaneurysms, and other small lesions that might reflect infection
or demyelination. A preliminary report by Volkow and colleagues (1988)
points in the direction to be taken. Her group looked in multidisciplinary
fashion at MRI, PET, and clinical neurological data from seven stimulant
abusers. Three of the seven showed white matter hyperintensities suggesting demyelination on MRI; two who had normal brain structure revealed
seventh-cranial-nerve paresthesia on neurological exam; and one other,
normal on MRI, showed abnormal cerebral blood flow on PET examination.
The computer-assisted processing of MRI images, which involves classifying
pixels (graphic image units) based on variations in signal strength, also
offers the possibility of looking for subtle, diffuse changes in white matter.
If a greater incidence of small structural lesions is found in concert with the
abuse of any particular class of substance, other questions regarding the role
that such lesions may play in NP dysfunction and recovery can then be
addressed.
Methods for Studying Dynamic Intracerebral Processes
Regional Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. Inspection of the physiology of the living brain has become increasingly feasible since the advent
of two highly sophisticated technologies: SPECT and PET. SPECT is able
to measure photon emission from radiolabeled substances. With SPECT,
xenon, krypton, and technetium microsphere inhalation have all been used in
the study of cerebral blood flow (Hill et al. 1982). Parenteral introduction
123
iodobenzyl (HIPDM) permits the study
of 123iodoamphetamine (IMP) and
of both flow and uptake. Both amines are lipophilic, move easily across
the blood-brain barrier, and are nearly completely extracted during a single
passage through the brain. IMP is at less than 50 percent peak activity and
37
HIPDM is at 75 percent within 2 minutes of injection. Maximum brain activity continues with both tracers for between 30 and 60 minutes. Peak
activity for IMP is substantially higher than for HIPDM (Holman et al.
1984). The greater utilization of IMP makes its use with the less sensitive
rotating gamma-ray camera more practical. The relatively extended activity
time for IMP and HIPDM allows concurrent behavioral challenges for
studying regional differences in activity, depending on the nature of the
behavioral task.
When SPECT is used, several recording instruments are available, including
a rotating gamma-ray sensitive camera, a multidetecting scanning tomograph,
and an Anger camera, the images from which are subjected to planar scintigraphy. SPECT, utilizing the xenon-inhalation technique, has an acceptable test-retest reliability (Blauenstein et al. 1975; McHenry et al. 1978).
One limitation is that central brain structures are masked to SPECT if multiple external collimeters are used to measure regional flow.
The SPECT methodology has recently been used to assess regional cerebral
blood flow (rCBF) alterations in persons acutely intoxicated on benzodiazepines, alcohol, and marijuana (Mathew et al. 1985; Mathew and Wilson
1986; Mathew et al. 1989) and has been employed in studies of detoxifying
alcoholics (Berglund et al. 1980). The Berglund study found a steady
decrease in the variability of rCBF, a normalization of the expected assymetry of blood flow between right and left hemispheres, and specific right
hemispheric rCBF increases in the superior frontal and parieto-occipital
areas. They also found statistically significant correlations between
improvement on the Trailmaking test and increased blood flow in bilateral
fronto-temporal areas. The Berglund investigation is instructive for its
repeated-measures design, in which both NP and rCBF measures were obtained from each subject at 1, 3, 5, and 7 weeks postabstinence.
PET studies of cerebral blood flow, blood volume, oxygen, and glucose
consumption are often conducted utilizing glucose labeled with isotopes of
carbon (11C), oxygen (15O), nitrogen (13N), or radiolabeled oxygen by itself.
Brain phannacokinetics are studied using any of a number of molecules
(ligands), which can be labeled with carbon, fluorine (18F), bromide (76Br),
and other elements that can exist as isotopes (Frackowiak 1986).
With PET, a gamma-sensitive camera transversely collects images of the
positron-labeled material as it flows through the cerebral vascular system,
transports through the blood-brain barrier, and perfuses the CNS tissue,
which metabolizes it. When such labeled molecules, e.g., 18F deoxyglucose,
emit positrons, they collide with electrons, resulting in annihilation and
emission of two gamma particles, at roughly 180-degree angles, at the site
of the collision. The gamma camera, with computer assistance, can reconstruct the location of this event, thereby allowing digitally encoded
38
information on gamma transmission to be translated into an image of the
brain regions involved in uptake of the radiolabeled substance.
PET scanning is considerably more expensive than SPECT, because it
requires a cyclotron in the manufacture of radiolabeled tracers and extensive
technical staff to run the scanner. SPECT is a relatively more available and
less expensive technique. Because they can measure abnormalities in blood
flow and metabolism, PET and SPECT might be more sensitive to certain
early neurophysiological changes related to substance abuse than are MRI
and CT.
The potential of PET for substance abuse research can be appreciated from
a brief look at related neuroscientific applications. Animal studies involving
the rat have examined both acute and chronic effects on glucose metabolism
of amphetamines (Orzi et al. 1983), tricyclic antidepressants and MAO
inhibitors (Gerber et al. 1983), and antipsychotics (McCulloch et al. 1982).
In several controlled human investigations, PET has, among other things,
successfully distinguished between the ratio of frontal to posterior uptake of
deoxyglucose in persons with both schizophrenic and affect disorders vs.
age- and sex-matched controls (Buchsbaum et al. 1982; Buchsbaum et al.
1984; Delisi et al. 1985a; DeLisi et al. 1985b). In the latter case, the
investigation was longitudinal; a group of nine schizophrenics were scanned
twice, with 9 months elapsing between first and second scans. Initially, the
patients had undergone a minimum 2-week neuroleptic washout. At followup, the subjects had all been restored to their medication regimens for a
minimum of 2 weeks. A significant increase in total cortical uptake of
deoxyglucose was noted among the schizophrenics treated with various common neuroleptics at followup, but the “hypofrontal” frontal-posterior ratio
remained unchanged.
Depressivelike symptoms occur following cessation of amphetamine and
cocaine exposure in both animals and humans. This suggests that at least
transient pathophysiological changes might occur in the central nervous subsystems that are thought to be associated with depression (Barrett and White
1980; Carroll and Lac 1987; Kokkinidis and Zacharko 1980; Kokkinidis
et al. 1986; Kokkinidis 1988; Leith and Barrett 1976; Leith and Barrett
1980; Wood and Lal 1987; Woolverton and Kleven 1988; Siegel and
Kuczenski, unpublished data). Current evidence implicates serotonergic,
noradrenergic, and dopaminergic systems in the actions of cocaine and
amphetamine (Barrett and White 1980; Dackis and Gold 1985; Dackis et al.
1985; Goeders and Smith 1983; Kokkinidis 1988; Koob and Bloom 1988;
Pitts and Marwah 1987; Sibley et al. 1982; Wyatt et al. 1988) and suggests
the importance of future PET studies employing appropriate ligands.
Formal PET studies of substance abusers as a diagnostic category and of
stimulant abusers, in particular, are only recently appearing in the literature.
Volkow and associates (1988) reported that rCBF was decreased in the
39
regions of the lateral prefrontal and left anterior temporal cortex of cocaine
abusers. However, Baxter and colleagues (1988), using 18F-6 fluoro-L-dopa
and PET did not find evidence of abnormal flow and metabolism in preliminary studies of nondepressed withdrawing cocaine abusers. In fact,
Baxter’s cocaine abusers were comparable to nonpatient controls and better
than cocaine-nonabusing bipolar and unipolar depressed subjects on measures of rCBF.
One recently proposed longitudinal investigation, to be jointly carried out by
the San Diego and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California
medical schools, will use 18F-6 fluoro-L-dopa to study the uptake of L-dopa
in the brains of stimulant abusers at 2 to 3 days and at 4 to 6 weeks postwithdrawal. Using the ratio of dopa uptake in the striatum vs. the
cerebellum in stimulant abusers and drug-nonusing controls, some light may
be shed on the question of whether presynaptic DA dysfunction, which can
occur in stimulant abuse, remediates with continued abstinence.
The potentially important relationship between NP performance and dynamic
brain processes is beginning to be illuminated by the conjoint use of NP
and PET methods. Chase and associates (1984) repotted significant correlations between performance on the 11 subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the uptake of 18F fluorodeoxyglucose in various regions of
the brains of a small mixed sample of elderly normals and Alzheimer’s
disease patients. Although this was a small study, with some limitations
related to the low resolution of the PET images obtained, the crossvalidation of two neurodiagnostic methods is important and can serve as a
model for future research in substance abuse.
Fully exploring the possibility that psychoactive chemicals may permanently
alter receptor number and function or produce other long-standing metabolic
brain changes could be of considerable import in shaping future research
and treatment strategies, as well as in the development of general public
policy regarding drug abuse. For example, if, through longitudinal radiolabeled ligand studies, it was determined that amphetamine abuse permanently reduced the number of functioning DA receptors or damaged the
neurons responsible for DA production, this finding could have a significant
effect on the development of neuropsychopharmacological treatment for drug
abusers. Such studies also have the potential to contribute significantly to
knowledge of the physiometabolic underpinnings of major psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.
Electrophysiology: EEG and Evoked Potentials. Electrophysiological
methods such as BEAM and neurometrics constitute two other means by
which dynamic brain processes may be studied in vivo. They have common
roots in clinical electroencephalography (EEG). With the recent advent
of computer-based data collection and processing, EEG methods have
40
undergone considerable improvement, facilitating a greater understanding of
brain electrical phenomena.
Neurometrics, as developed by Drs. Leslie Prichep and E. Roy John at New
York University (NYU), is a method that estimates the probability that the
quantitative data derived from qualitative features of brain electrical activity
reflect dysfunction. Recordings of the resting EEG and various sensoryevoked potentials are obtained by computer under standardized testing conditions. Computer algorithms extract quantitative features from these
recordings, which are then compared with a normative data base (normative
data in the brain research laboratory at NYU have been obtained from more
than 750 subjects between 6 and 90 years of age), using multivariate statistical procedures. The real-time value of any feature is replaced with an
estimate of the probability that this value in an individual patient might be
found in a healthy, normal functioning person of the same age (Prichep and
John 1986). Such methods lend themselves readily to the creation of elec
trophysiological profiles for clinically identifiable disease states. Recent
attempts at discriminant function classification by Prichep and John resulted
in 77, 72, 80, and 79 percent correct group assignment in normal, primary
depressive, alcoholic, and demented patients all considered simultaneously
(chance correct assignment was 25 percent), based on 11 quantitative indices
features extracted from their neurometric profiles. An independent replication resulted in an even greater total correct classification.
Evoked potential work by Duffy and colleagues at the Children’s Hospital
in Boston has been evolving in roughly the same direction as that of
Prichep and John. Duffy has pioneered in what he refers to as BEAM
(brain electrical activity mapping). Using a statistically based method, he
has developed rules for the diagnosis, from an analysis of topographic maps
of brain electrical activity, of dyslexia in young patients. As with Prichep
and John’s method, there is considerable individual variation in brain electrical output across trials, even in healthy individuals. To develop his own
normal data base, Duffy employed sophisticated statistical algorithms that
sampled mean variance in the same normal subjects across repeated trials,
thereby accumulating substantial knowledge, not only of actual performance,
but of variance across trials in his age-stratified normal sample. An interesting joining of this methodology with pharmaceutical challenge for purposes of testing the validity of BEAM was demonstrated when 13 patients
with known supratentorial (above the tentorium of the cerebellum) brain
lesions were administered IV sodium thiopental and monitored via BEAM
technology. The purpose was to better visualize electrical abnormalities.
Thiopental is known to induce fast background activity across a number of
EEG-sensitive electrical frequencies. When atrophic or space-occupying
lesions are present, alterations in beta activity are noted in the presence of
thiopental. Using the statistical probability mapping procedures developed at
Children’s Hospital, it was possible to demonstrate electrical abnormalities
on the BEAM map that corresponded accurately to the CT-scan-established
41
location of the lesion in question in 12 of the 13 cases. This occurred after
the first injection of thiopental and was replicated on the second injection
(Duffy et al. 1984).
Duffy and his group have also applied BEAM in studies of lecithin’s
effects on the electrophysiology of the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients (Duffy et al. 1987) and in the aforementioned investigations of
dyslexia (Duffy et al. 1980a; Duffy et al. 1980b; Duffy et al. 1984). The
group at NYU’s brain research laboratory have applied their methods in
studies of normal developmental equations for the electroencephalogram, in
the EEG correlates of various neurological abnormalities in children (John
et al. 1980; John et al. 1983), in the study of quantitative EEG irregularities
among depressives (Prichep et al. 1986), and in investigations of dementia
(Prichep et al. 1983). Others, utilizing the same or similar methods, have
studied cerebral ischemia (Jonkman et al. 1985).
Thus, the past 10 years have produced an increased sensitivity in the EEG
through the application of sophisticated computer-assisted statistical averaging, within-subject sampling methods, and the development of substantial
normative data bases. John et al. (1988) and Duffy et al. (1984) imagine
that the development of complete taxonomies for the electrophysiological
correlates of many psychiatric illnesses is not far in the future.
In research on substance abuse, several applications of computed electrophysiology are apparent. First, as normative data bases evolve, it should be
possible to describe the differential EEG characteristics of different abusable
substances and the time course for changes in electrical activity of the
brain, in relation to withdrawal and abstinence. Second, the patterns of
abnormality, for example regional changes, can be explored. Third, it
should be possible to link electrical and NP studies to examine alterations in
information processing caused by acute intoxication with, withdrawal from,
and longer term phenomena associated with particular drugs. Fourth, electrical, metabolic (PET or SPECT), and NP studies of the same drug users at
various times can elucidate the relationship of drug- or withdrawal-induced
biochemical alterations, electrical activity, and cognitive behavioral
outcomes.
Information Processing and Performance Paradigms. Earlier, we described NP methods of assessing drug abusers. Neuropsychometry is, of
course, only one approach to behavioral assessment. Additional strategies
have evolved under the general rubric of information processing (IP) and
performance paradigms.
IP abilities and performance are thought to underlie higher level and more
complex NP functions. They include measures of the speed and efficiency
or accuracy with which an individual perceives a stimulus, manipulates its
representation in the CNS, and offers response. IP measures are frequently
42
described as being process sensitive rather than outcome sensitive. Performance on most IP tasks is relatively unconfounded by educational and
social background. Constructs that are operationally defined and tested with
such measures include simple and choice reaction time, inspection time,
movement time, simple attention, divided attention, and concentration.
Often, several of these parameters arc assessed within the same procedures
and much of the literature in which such methods are reported is concerned
with the determination of the fundamental psychological abilities associated
with intelligence.
The Hick paradigm (Jensen 1982) is a basic and commonly applied example
of a combined simple and choice reaction-time measure. Whether presented
via computer or by a dedicated reaction-time device, the task samples reaction (or “inspection”) time and movement time. Subjects are presented with
one, three, or five choice conditions. Open squares on a CRT screen for
example, may be used as stimulus lights, and subjects are required to
respond by pressing the appropriate key as quickly as possible after a
square becomes illuminated. Multiple trials are obtained for each choice
condition. At the beginning of each trial, the subject rests a forefinger of
his or her dominant hand on the space bar without depressing it. At random intervals of 1.5 to 2.5 seconds, one of the stimulus squares is illuminated. The subject must first press the space bar and then press the key
directly below the illuminated light. Reaction time is recorded as the number of milliseconds between the onset of stimulus and the instant the subject
presses the space bar. Movement time is the interval between pressing the
space bar and pressing the response key.
The Arrows Test (Larson 1985) is another example of a reaction-time paradigm. Again, a subject facing a CRT is asked to fixate on two small circles placed 1/2 inch apart in the center of the screen. In each trial, one
circle is replaced by an arrow and, depending on the arrow’s direction and
position, the subject must press either a right or left key on the keyboard.
If the arrow points downward, its position (replacing right or left circle)
indicates the appropriate response. A right- or left-pointing arrow, regardless of position, indicates the appropriate response. The position and direction of the arrows are varied randomly. Median response latencies and
comprehensive standard deviations for the differing conditions are typical
scores used in assessing performance.
One common example of an inspection-time paradigm is the Inspection
Time with Lines Test (Saccuzzo et al. 1986). In this test, subjects are
briefly shown two horizontal lines of unequal length, presented in the center
of a CRT screen. Subjects are to select the longer line in the pair on each
trial. A record is kept of accuracy, and subjects are given performance
feedback by the computer. The display of lines is terminated by the superimposition of another line that masks the test item and limits viewing time
(this is termed visual backward masking). The length of the test lines
43
remains constant; therefore, duration of the stimulus is the chief source of
item difficulty. In this particular paradigm, five separate durations are
applied, and 50 trials are administered, with 10 trials per duration. The
purpose is to learn at which duration the subject obtains the maximal number of correct responses, i.e., how much inspection time the brain requires
to respond correctly.
In one example of an application of these strategies to the study of psychoactive drugs, the relationship of monoaminergic overactivity to IP abilities
was examined. Braff and colleagues at the University of California, San
Diego Medical School employed a variation of the visual backward masking
paradigm in an investigation using methylphenidate to induce a monoaminergic surge in nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients (Braff and Huey 1988).
In this study, a tachistoscope, rather than a computer, controlled duration
and sequence of stimulus presentations. A target was first presented at a
duration long enough for patients to discriminate and report it (critical stimulus duration), in a forced-choice letter identification task. After an interval, a pattern-masking stimulus was presented, which erased or interfered
with the registration of the target in the subject’s brain. As the interstimulus interval increased between target and mask, the target at some point
escaped the disruptive effects of the mask. Methylphenidate was found to
induce schizophrenialike IP dysfunction in this double-blind crossover investigation of nonpsychotic inpatients. Specifically, when treated with methylphenidate, the subjects were impaired on measures of attention and IP,
compared with their performance while treated with oxazepam or placebo.
These findings support the well-documented vulnerability of schizophrenics
to masking even at relatively long interstimulus intervals (Steronko and
Wood 1978; Brody et al. 1980; Braff 1981; Ruff et al. 1985; Saccuzzo
et al. 1986) and the hypothesis that schizophrenia is, at least in part, a
result of a perturbed DA system in the brain.
If we accept that the paradigms described above assess the early IP that
underlies more complex cognitive events such as perception; storage and
retrieval of information; manipulation of concepts; and decision making,
then the importance of including IP measures in studies of the longer term
effects of drug abuse become obvious. Because the alterations in IP noted
in some schizophrenic patients might reflect changes in dopaminergic function, IP techniques are of special interest in studies of drugs that directly or
indirectly affect DA neurones. Such agents include cocaine, the amphetamines, and phencyclidine. Indirect effects on DA function may also be
produced by the opiates and by withdrawal from CNS depressants. The
enduring nature of alteration in fundamental IP clearly requires study.
CONCLUSION
In summarizing this brief review of promising neurodiagnostic methods that
could be applied in studies of substance abuse, we return to our plea for
44
multidisciplinary research. Through multidisciplinary investigations, the
products of brain activity (cognition, measured by NP and IP tests) can perhaps be linked to underlying neurobiological processes (electrophysiology,
blood flow, metabolism) and brain structure. While the multidisciplinary
approach is not the only way to continue to develop an understanding of
substance-abuse.-related brain disorder, it is an approach that does greater
justice to the complexity of brain-behavior relationships than any univariate
strategy. It is an approach that, if implemented properly, can spare us
many of the problems associated with the piecemeal, “two steps forward,
one step back” methods that have often been used in the past, mostly out of
necessity.
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AUTHORS
Robert J. Reed, M.S.
Igor Grant, M.D.
San Diego Veterans Administration
Medical Center and
School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92020
56
Use of Complex Behavioral
Baselines to Monitor Residual Drug
Effects in Animals
Merle G. Paule
INTRODUCTION
The behavior of an animal represents the integrated output of the organism.
It is an observable and therefore measurable activity that is generally mediated by the central nervous system (CNS), primarily the brain. Specific behaviors are thought to be associated with specific brain functions. Copulation is thought to subserve the function of reproduction; eating, the function
of feeding; and so on. For the most part, it is yet unclear whether many
specific behaviors and thus many specific brain functions can be correlated
with specific anatomical substrates or specific neurotransmitter systems.
The status of a specific function of the brain can, however, be inferred by
observing specific behaviors that are thought to be associated with the specific function of interest.
Operant techniques are behavioral procedures requiring that subjects operate
(hence the term “operant”) specific manipulanda or instruments in response
to specific environmental conditions or stimuli. These instruments may be
levers, press-plates, keys, etc. Environmental conditions in a given operant
situation can be organized such that the responses or behaviors emitted by
subjects are thought to depend upon rather specific (albeit often poorly
defined) functions of the brain. Examples of such functions include: learning; short- and long-term memory; attention or vigilance; sensory perception
(color, sound, and position discrimination); temporal or time perception;
reproduction; and motivation. Because operant techniques allow the design
of experiments that generate behaviors thought to be indicative of the status
of specific brain functions, such techniques are of tremendous interest to
those studying the functional integrity of the brain. A major drawback to
using operant techniques in the animal laboratory is that it takes time to
train subjects to perform at stable (predictable) levels that are appropriate
for use as behavioral baselines; it is not unusual for training to take several
57
months. Another problem associated with the use of operant techniques is
the difficulty of routinely assessing the large numbers of experimental subjects that are desirable in many experiments. This is less of a problem now
that highly automated systems administer the behavioral tasks and collect
and store the data, often performing calculations or other data manipulations
online.
Some investigators have a strong interest in assessing the functional integrity of the brain by monitoring behaviors generated using operant techniques, and there are other reasons why complex behaviors, in general, may
be useful for studying effects (acute, chronic, residual, or other). Complex
behaviors are thought to be subserved by multiple neurons and thus are
dependent upon the integrity of multiple units. If the function of any of the
units, or neurons, subserving or influencing a particular function is altered,
the behavior dependent upon that function may also be altered. It is presumed that complex behaviors will usually be more sensitive to the effects
of exogenous compounds than are more basic reflex behaviors, since reflex
behaviors are generally subserved by a relatively small number of neurons
(two in the simplest case). With operant behaviors in particular, it is
advantageous to be able to elicit a specific type of complex behavior simply
by putting a trained subject into the appropriate environment. Additionally,
operant behaviors are under the control of the environment, and environmental variables can be strictly controlled; therefore, operant behaviors can
also be controlled. Well-controlled behaviors are generally characterized by
relatively small variabilities, and it has been noted that baselines with little
variability may be more sensitive to experimental manipulation than baselines with great variability (Thompson 1974). For instance, to demonstrate
that a specific manipulation had a significant effect on a behavioral baseline
characterized by a large variability (a standard error of 20 percent of the
mean) the manipulation would have to cause a relatively large effect. On
the other hand, if the baseline data were characterized by a small variability
(standard error of 2 percent of the mean), then a smaller effect could be detected, even if the means were the same for both baselines. In some cases,
extremely stable behavioral baselines (such as those obtained after extensive
repetition over long periods of time) can be some of the most difficult to
affect by a given manipulation. The particular behaviors involved and the
number of observations made (in obtaining both baseline and experimental
data) will also have a profound effect on the ability of a particular behavior
to detect the effect of an experimental manipulation, but this is true for any
experimental measure. Another point in favor of operant behavioral assessment is that the experimenter’s interaction with the subject is minimized,
thus reducing or eliminating a potential source of experimental variability.
Because operant behaviors are not only useful but also interesting and
meaningful, the more operant behaviors measured, the better. The more
operant behaviors measured in the same subject, the better. Further, a
recent approach to operant behavioral analyses in nonhuman primates used a
58
computerized operant test battery or OTB (Paule et al. 1988; Schulze et al.
1988). The OTB consists of five different tasks. Each task is performed
by most experimental subjects, and each task is thought to engender
responding that is dependent upon a different brain function. The specific
functions modeled in these tasks include learning, color and position discrimination, motivation, short-term memory and attention, and time perception. The names of the operant tasks, or schedules, that generate behaviors
thought to depend upon these functions are incremental repeated acquisition
(IRA), conditioned position responding (CPR), progressive ratio (PR),
delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS), and temporal response differentiation
(TRD), respectively. The OTB may be used in complex behavioral studies,
particularly since the advent of computerized task administration and data
manipulation. The operant or behavioral panels used in such studies will
vary according to the type of laboratory animal used and the number, type,
and complexity of behavioral tasks administered to each subject.
STRATEGIES FOR STUDYING THE RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF
DRUGS ON BEHAVIOR IN ANIMALS
There are various strategies for studying the residual effects of drugs on the
behavior of animals, and a description of some of these strategies and examples of studies that have used them may help illustrate the possibilities.
It is important to point out that laboratory-animal scientists have tremendous
advantages over those investigators who strive to conduct studies in human
populations. The laboratory-animal scientists do not have to concern themselves with the tremendous number of known confounding factors present in
human subjects. Such confounding factors include, but are by no means
limited to, socioeconomic status, age, sex, health status, diet, and previous
drug use. The laboratory-animal scientist can rather easily control for these
potentially confounding variables. The epidemiologists and clinicians often
cannot control for these variables, and must rely on relatively sophisticated
statistical procedures to try to factor out confounding variables.
Controlled studies on the residual behavioral effects of drugs in animals
generally seek to answer the question: Is the behavior of a treated animal
somehow different than it was prior to treatment and, if so, is the change a
result of that treatment? Attempts to answer this question usually involve
one of two approaches. In the first, each animal serves as its own control;
in the other, treated animals are compared to untreated animals or those
treated only with placebo or vehicle. The most comprehensive studies will
use both approaches. Because it has usually been assumed that most therapeutic agents and drugs of abuse have reversible effects on behavior when
given acutely, most studies on residual effects have involved the chronic
administration of such compounds, and this discussion will be limited to
studies involving chronic drug exposure. Recent reports, however, have
demonstrated long-lasting behavioral effects of drugs (sensitization to
subsequent drug exposure) in animals receiving very limited exposure to
59
some compounds, such as amphetamine (Kolta et al. 1985a; Kolta et al.
1985b).
For studies that compare treated animals to themselves, it is imperative to
obtain some measure of behavior prior to the initial drug exposure. For
complex operant behaviors, it is essential to establish a behavioral baseline
prior to exposing the animal to the drug. This involves monitoring performance parameters, i.e., accuracy and rate of responding, repeatedly, long
enough to establish predictable (near steady-state) levels of responding.
Once a behavioral baseline has been established, it can be used to determine
the magnitude and direction of subsequent drug effects on that behavior in
that same animal. Paule and Killam (1986) used this strategy to examine
the effects of chronic anticonvulsant administration on operant performance
in the genetically epileptic baboon, Papio papio (Ppa). In these studies,
performance in an incremental repeated acquisition task (IRA) was used as
a model of learning behavior. In this task, subjects were required to
respond on three response levers in a specified order to receive food
reinforcers. The correct sequence of lever presses was changed each test
session so that animals had to acquire a new series of lever presses each
session. At the start of each session, animals were required to press only
two levers in a specific sequence to obtain food. After a criterion of 20
errorless sequences was completed, the task difficulty was incremented such
that the subjects had to complete a three-response series and so on, up to a
sequence requiring five responses or to the animal’s performance limit,
whichever occurred first. An important performance measure was the percentage of the IRA task completed each session. This endpoint is a measure of the response sequence length mastered in a given session and is a
function of both response rate and accuracy. Data obtained for the antiepileptic agents valproic acid (VPA) (figure 1) and ethosuximide (ESX)
(figure 2) demonstrated that performance in the IRA task was sensitive to
disruption by both agents, albeit at very different doses for the two
compounds.
The drugs were given 7 days per week for 2 weeks in ascending doses.
The data points presented are thus 2-week averages of performance in this
task. This experimental design allowed examination of the effects of
increasing doses of the drug during the active administration phase of the
experiment, during the period of acute withdrawal from daily drug administration, and during a prolonged period of recovery from chronic drug
administration. Observation of drug effects on behavior that occur during
active exposure allows for the examination of early treatment effects, if
there are any, and the examination of tolerance development to such effects,
if it occurs. Evidence for active treatment effects were noted during VPA
administration in three of six animals shown in figure 1 (Ppa 136, 131, and
137). The effects began at doses of 15, 30, and 240 mg/kg per day, respectively. Active treatment effects were noted during ESX administration
in four out of four animals shown in figure 2 and began at doses of 15, 30,
60
FIGURE 1. Effects of chronic VPA administration in the baboon on percentage of IRA tasks completed
KEY: *p<.05; **p<.025; ***p<.01; +p<.005; and ++p<.001, two-tailed t tests
NOTE:
SOURCE:
Data are means (+SEM) of 10 test sessions conducted over 2 consecutive weeks at each dose
of drug or vehicle (0 mg/kg/day). Significance is measured against the control period
immediately preceding the first dose given.
Paule and Killam 1986. copyright 1986, American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics.
and 60 mg/kg per day (for Ppa 101 and 131, 102, and 128, respectively).
Evidence for tolerance development during VPA treatment was noted in Ppa
131 after an increase in daily dose from 30 to 60 mg/kg as evidenced by a
return of performance to predrug levels at 60 mg/kg per day. Increasing
the dose again to 120 mg/kg per day overcame the tolerance developed by
this animal, as indicated by further decrements in its behavior at this dose.
Evidence for tolerance development to the effects of ESX was noted in two
animals whose performance improved at 30 mg/kg per day after being disrupted by doses of 15 mg/kg per day. This apparent tolerance was also
overcome by the higher dose of 45 mg/kg/day. There appeared to be an
absence of withdrawal effects in five of the six subjects in the VPA study,
as abrupt cessation of daily VPA administration did not cause any additional
adverse effects on this behavior. One animal exhibited a further decrease in
the percentage of task completed during withdrawal (Ppa 137). However, it
appeared that this change was simply a further deterioration of behavior
resulting from the insult associated with the high daily dose of 240 mg/kg
per day, as there were no precipitous changes in behavior that were associated with acute withdrawal. In the ESX study, no subject’s behavior
61
FIGURE 2. Effects of chronic ESX administration in the baboon on percentage of IRA tasks completed
KEY: **p<.025; ***p<.01; +p<.005; and ++p<.001.
NOTE:
SOURCE:
Data presented as described in figure 1. The break in the abscissa represents 4 weeks during
which the animals were tested while receiving vehicle, but data were not collected. The last
point on the graph thus represents data obtained during weeks 9 and 10 after drug treatment,
during which vehicle was still being given.
Paule and Killam 1986, copyright 1986, American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics.
significantly worsened during the acute withdrawal phase either, but the
relatively devastating behavioral effects caused by daily ESX treatment persisted for at least 10 weeks following cessation of treatment. For Ppa 101
there was little evidence of any recovery from the behavioral disruption
caused by ESX even 10 weeks after cessation of treatment.
When it is pointed out that the most effective anticonvulsant doses for VPA
and ESX are 7.5 to 30 and 60 or more mg/kg per day, respectively, it
seems clear that the more behaviorally toxic of these two anti-petit-mal
agents is ESX, since it causes rather profound behavioral disruption at doses
well below those considered effective in the treatment of epilepsy. VPA,
on the other hand, disrupted behavior only at doses generally higher than
those considered to be effective in therapy.
62
The main point to be made from these data is that clear residual effects are
detectable in a complex behavior that is thought to model learning. In the
same studies (Paule and Killam 1986), it was found that in Ppa performing
a different operant task (incremental fixed-ratio), neither VPA nor ESX
caused consistent effects on behavior during or after chronic drug treatment.
Thus, there are also clear differences in task sensitivity or susceptibility to
drug effects. The adverse behavioral effects of drug treatment, noted as
decrements in performance of the learning tasks, persisted for at least
6 weeks after the last dose of VPA and for up to 10 weeks and longer
after the last dose of ESX. These residual effects were not likely due to
the continued presence of drug, as neither compound was detectable in
serum 1 week after the last dose. However, as brain levels of drug were
not measured, the possibility that the residual behavioral effects were found
because of the continued presence of these compounds or their metabolites
in target tissue cannot be ruled out.
In studies conducted in exactly the same fashion (Paule and Killam 1980),
the behavioral effects of chronic nordiazepam (NDZP, a major metabolite of
diazepam) administration were examined over a similar time course, again
in Ppa. Figure 3 shows data obtained from one of nine animals performing
the IRA task during these studies. This was the only animal in which the
effect was demonstrated. Were the data from this subject to be included in
a group analysis of the effects of abrupt NDZP withdrawal, it would likely
appear that there was a measurable effect on the group. These data are
shown to demonstrate that individual subjects vary tremendously in their
responses to drug administration and withdrawal. It is important to take
this variation into consideration, as interpretation of group data alone may
be misleading. Details of the exposure for this subject can be found in the
figure legend.
The upward arrow (figure 3) indicates when daily NDZP administration
began, and the downward arrow indicates when daily NDZP administration
stopped. Note that during the exposure period, performance was not much
different, if any, than it had been prior to treatment. However, soon after
cessation of daily NDZP administration, performance in this task decreased
dramatically, and for more than 1 year after the last dose of NDZP (about
50 weeks, shown in figure 3), this animal’s performance never returned to
levels noted prior to or during daily NDZP administration. In this subject,
then, it appeared that acute withdrawal from chronic NDZP administration
profoundly altered a complex behavioral response, and the alteration lasted
for an extended period of time. This behavioral disruption continued long
after that indicated in figure 3, and was unaltered by chronic administration
of other anticonvulsants over wide dose ranges. The animal’s general
appearance during this time was not noticeably different than it was prior to
the start of chronic NDZP administration. Thus, operant techniques demonstrated a rather profound behavioral effect, caused presumably by abrupt
drug withdrawal, that might otherwise have gone completely unnoticed.
63
FIGURE 3. Effects of acute withdrawal from chronic NDZP administration in the baboon on percent of IRA tasks completed
NOTE:
Data shown are weekly averages (+SEM) for one animal (Ppa 134) of nine that received the
same treatment regimen. During weeks 5-13, the animal received various doses of NDZP
vehicle (40% propylene glycol, 10% ethanol, 50% water, by volume) or saIine given IM once
per day or no treatment. During weeks 14-23 the animal was invoIved in acute dose-response
studies on naloxone, data not shown. During weeks 24-28 the animal again received either
IM saline injections or NDZP vehicle. Upward arrow indicates the beginning of daily NDZP
administration: once. per day IM injections at doses of 0.125. 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/kg.
Doses were given in ascending order, each dose was given 7 days/wk for 2 weeks. Downward arrow indicates when acute NDZP withdrawal began: vehicle only was given for 4
weeks followed by saline administration for 3 weeks (to week 4.5). For the remainder of the
time shown, the subject also received chronic treatments with various doses of valproic acid
and carbamazepine.
The mechanism underlying this phenomenon is unknown, but its occurrence
is important for a number of reasons. First, such an effect demonstrates
again that complex behaviors may be very useful for detecting long-term or
residual effects of drugs or drug withdrawal. Second, it demonstrates that
acute drug withdrawal may have profound and apparently irreversible effects
on complex behaviors in some subjects. Finally, it demonstrates a very
important experimental reality: not all animals respond in the same manner
to the same experimental manipulations. Eight other animals (one of which
was the affected animal’s half-brother) received essentially the same drug
regimen as did the affected individual, and none of those animals exhibited
the phenomenon just described.
64
The excellent work by Stiglick and Kalant (1982a) on the cannabinoids
demonstrates another approach to examining the residual effects of drugs.
Additional examples of this approach can be found in their other
publications (Stiglick and Kalant 1982b; Stiglick and Kalant 1983; Stiglick
and Kalant 1985; Stiglick et al. 1984). In these studies, laboratory rats
were treated chronically (for 3 or 6 months) with marijuana extract. Two
to three months after the last dose, the animals underwent a variety of complex behavioral assessments; their performance was then compared to that
for rats that had received vehicle only. Animals that had been exposed to
the marijuana extract demonstrated significant alterations in open field
activity and significant deficits in the acquisition of a “time perception”
(differential reinforcement of low-rate responding schedule or DRL) task
(figure 4). After 2 to 3 weeks of training, the marijuana-extract-treated animals were significantly less efficient in responding in the DRL task than
were the controls, irrespective of whether active exposure to the extract
lasted for 6 (figure 4a) or for 3 (figure 4b) months. Likewise, recent
studies by Holson et al. (1989) have demonstrated significant residual
(2 months after the last dose) behavioral effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol ( 9-THC) in rats responding to a complex maze after chronic (90 day)
oral administration. Thus, residual effects of cannabinoids have been clearly
demonstrated in rodent models in studies in which no behavioral assessments were made during the active exposure phase of the experiment or for
2 to 4 months after the last treatment.
A study supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted
at the National Center for Toxicological Research has been designed specifically to examine the residual behavioral effects of chronic marijuana smoke
exposure. Young male rhesus monkeys are serving as subjects in this
large-scale experiment using complex operant behaviors as baselines for
examining drug effects. An extensive amount of behavioral data have been
gathered in this study and detailed analyses are under way for publication
elsewhere. The experimental design represents a comprehensive approach to
the study of residual behavioral effects of drugs.
As shown, monitoring behaviors prior to, during, and after the active-drugexposure phase of a chronic drug study allows one to obtain data on residual as well as other drug effects (acute effects, tolerance development, withdrawal effects, etc.). However, it may be argued that in subjects allowed to
perform the behaviors of interest during the active exposure phase of an
experiment, tolerance may develop to any behavioral disruption caused by
such treatment. Residual drug effects would then be masked by such tolerance and thus go undetected. For the chronic marijuana smoke study, all
subjects were trained to perform in the operant test battery (OTB) described
earlier for about 1 year. The subjects were then divided into two behavioral groups: one group was behaviorally assessed during the active exposure phase (1 year), while the other group was given cage rest throughout
that period. Behavior was monitored again in the cage-rested group
65
FIGURE 4. Acquisition of DRL. performance by control rats or rats
treated chronically with marijuana extract following either
6 months (a) or 3 months (b) of exposure (extract dose
equivalent to 20 mg tetrahydrocannabinol/kg)
NOTE:
SOURCE:
Testing began 97 and 113 days after the last treatment for the 6- and 3-month exposures,
respectively. Efficiency is defined as the percent of responses reinforced.
Stiglick and Kalant 1982a, copyright 1982, Springer-Verlag.
66
beginning 2 months after the last exposure to marijuana smoke. Within
both behavior groups, there were four treatment groups: a high-dose marijuana group (1 marijuana cigarette, approximately 2.5 percent 9-THC per
day, 7 days per week); a low-dose marijuana group (1 marijuana cigarette
per day, only on Saturdays and Sundays, with sham exposures Monday
through Friday); an extracted marijuana cigarette group (1 marijuana
cigarette devoid of cannabinoids, 7 days per week); and a sham group
(exposure to the dosing situation only, no smoke any day). Thus there
were a total of eight different experimental cells: four exposure conditions
X two behavioral conditions. It is important to the design that prior to
marijuana exposure, the eight groups used to fill these cells were balanced
with respect to performance in the five operant tasks contained in the OTB.
That is, animals were sorted into groups such that there were no differences
in group averages between measures of performance on each of the five
operant tasks. This preparation prior to beginning active marijuana smoke
exposure assured comparability of performance between experimental cells,
i.e., differences in apparent baseline “abilities” between groups were
eliminated. This experimental design also allowed for the use of the two
different approaches mentioned previously in studying the residual
behavioral effects of drugs: animals served as their own controls and they
were compared to other control animals. Additionally, the behavior of some
subjects was continuously monitored, whereas performance in others was
monitored only long after exposure had ceased.
Preliminary findings from these studies have been reported elsewhere (Paule
et al. 1988; Slikker et al. 1988). Briefly, it was shown that chronic marijuana smoke exposure does have detectable residual effects in some of the
OTB tasks. These residual effects were found in both behavioral groups
and in both the low- and the high-dose groups. Generally, when group
effects were detected, such effects were attributable to only a few, or some
times to one animal within the affected group. In affected animals that
were behaviorally assessed throughout the exposure period, cessation of
exposure was usually accompanied by a gradual return of performance
toward that of sham or placebo animals. In affected animals that were
cage-rested during the chronic exposure and withdrawal periods, noted residual effects did not appear to wane with the passage of time (figure 5).
Thus, both approaches to the behavioral analysis of residual drug effects
were effective.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that well-designed and controlled laboratory animal studies can
specifically examine and detect residual drug effects. Such studies are free
of the large numbers of confounding variables that cannot be controlled, or
in some cases known, in human studies. Additionally, human studies often
suffer from design flaws (Feinstein 1988). The relatively few numbers of
laboratory animal investigations that have been performed specifically to
67
FIGURE 5. Residual effects of chronic marijuana smoke exposure on performance of a conditioned position response (CPR) task in
rhesus monkeys
NOTE:
The CPR task required subjects to respond at either a left or a right press-plate depending
upon whether a center press-plate had been illuminated red or yellow (left correct) or blue or
green (right correct). See Schulze et al. (1988) for details of the procedure. This group of
animals was not allowed to perform the task during the active exposure portion of the study.
The mean number of trials completed per session are plotted as ratios of the preexposure or
baseline period. The first vertical line represents the start of 1 year of smoke exposure and
the second vertical line the end of exposure. The data are means for each treatment group
for periods of 4 weeks during which 10 CPR sessions generally occurred. Behavioral testing
was reinstated 2 months after the last exposure; the performance of the sham, placebo, and
low-dose groups was indistinguishable from one another within 5 months (by period #23).
The performance of the high-dose group, however, remained significantly different from all
other groups at this time, primarily because of the continued poor performance of one or two
animals in that group. Additionally, the average performance of the high-dose group, when
collapsed over periods 20-23, was significantly different from that of the sham group
collapsed over the same periods.
assess residual behavioral effects of drugs may reflect the time and cost
associated with these types of studies. Nonetheless, in light of the continuing drug abuse problem, it is becoming increasingly important to conduct
appropriate studies to determine the probable long-term consequences of
drug abuse on complex brain function. The public may then become better
informed and thus better equipped to make decisions concerning drug abuse.
There seems an urgent need to increase the emphasis on laboratory animal
68
studies so that useful information on the consequences of long-term drug
abuse can be obtained in a timely fashion. It should be possible, using
animal studies, to more rapidly identify those drugs with the greatest potential for causing adverse behavioral effects in humans. Examination of the
behavioral effects of compounds with well-defined mechanisms of action,
i.e., specific agonists, antagonists, depletes, and neurotoxicants for the various neurotransmitter systems, may provide valuable information concerning
the participation of specific neurotransmitter systems in specific behaviors.
As many drugs of abuse are known to interact with specific neurotransmitter
systems, e.g., benzodiazepines and the GABA system, it may then be possible to predict which behaviors or classes of behaviors will be adversely,
or otherwise, affected by a specific drug.
REFERENCES
Feinstein, A.R. Scientific standards in epidemiologic studies of the menace
of daily life. Science 242:1257-1263, 1988.
Holson, R.R.; Ali, S.F.; Scallet, A.C.; Slikker, W., Jr.; and Paule, M.G.
Benzodiazepine-like behavioral effects following withdrawal from chronic
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol administration in rats. Neurotoxicology
10:491-500, 1989.
Kolta, M.G.; Shreve, P.; De Souza, V.; and Uretsky, N.J. Time course of
the development of the enhanced behavioral and biochemical responses to
amphetamine after pretreatment with amphetamine. Neuropharmacology
24(9):823-829, 1985a.
Kolta, M.G.; Shreve, P.; and Uretsky, N.J. Effect of methylphenidate pretreatment on the behavioral and biochemical responses to amphetamine.
Eur J Pharmacol 117:279-282, 1985b.
Paule, M.G., and Killam, E.K. Improvement of repeated acquisition (learning) performance by chronic nordiazepam administration in the epileptic
baboon. The Pharmacologist 22(3):292, 1980.
Paule, M.G., and Killam, E.K. Behavioral toxicity of chronic ethosuximide
and sodium valproate treatment in the epileptic baboon, Papio papio.
J Pharmacol Exp Ther 238(1):32-38, 1986.
Paule, M.G.; McMillan D.E.; Bailey, J.R.; Scallet, A.C.; Ali, S.F.; and
Slikker, W., Jr. The effects of chronic marijuana smoke exposure on
complex behavior in the rhesus monkey. The Pharmacologist 30(3):A115,
1988.
Paule, M.G.; Schulze, G.E.; and Slikker, W., Jr. Complex brain function in
monkeys as a baseline for studying the effects of exogenous compounds.
Neurotoxicology 9(3):463-470, 1988.
Schulze, G.E.; McMillan, D.E.; Bailey, J.R.; Scallet, A.C.; Ali, S.F.;
Slikker, W., Jr.; and Paule, M.G. Acute effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rhesus monkeys as measured by performance in a
battery of complex operant tests. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 245(1):178-186,
1988.
69
Slikker, W., Jr.; Paule, M.G.; McMillan, D.E.; Bailey, J.R.; Scallet, A.C.;
and Ali, S.F. Assessment of complex behavior in the rhesus monkey:
Effects of chronic marijuana smoke exposure. Abst Soc Neurosci
14(1):327, 1988.
Stiglick, A., and Kalant, H. Residual effects of prolonged cannabis administration on exploration and DRL performance in rats. Psychopharmacology 77:124-128, 1982a.
Stiglick, A., and Kalant, H. Learning impairment in the radial-arm maze
following prolonged cannabis treatment in rats. Psychopharmacology
77:117-123, 1982b.
Stiglick, A., and Kalant, H. Behavioral effects of prolonged administration
of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in the rat. Psychopharmacology 80:325330, 1983.
Stiglick, A., and Kalant, H. Residual effects of chronic cannabis treatment
on behavior in mature rats. Psychopharmacology 85:436-439, 1985.
Stiglick, A.; Llewellyn, M.E.; and Kalant, H. Residual effects of prolonged
cannabis treatment on shuttle-box avoidance in the rat. Psychopharmacology 84:476-479, 1984.
Thompson, D.M. Repeated acquisition of response sequences: Effects of damphetamine and chlorpromazine. Pharmacol Biohem Behav 2:741-746,
1974.
AUTHOR
Merle G. Paule, Ph.D.
Pharmacodynamics Branch
Division of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology
National Center for Toxicological Research
Jefferson, AR 72079-9502
and
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Slot 611
Department of Pediatrics, Slot 512
College of Medicine
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 West Markham Street
Little Rock, AR 72205
70
Clinical-Behavioral Observations of
the Long-Term Effects of Drug
Abuse
George E. Woody, A. Thomas McLellan, and
Charles P. O’Brien
INTRODUCTION
The topic of the long-term effects of drug abuse is one of the most difficult
areas in substance abuse research to study, but also one of the most interesting and important. Of the many problems to emerge in exploring this
area, one of the first is that of separating acute drug effects and withdrawal
effects from underlying, nondrug conditions. The available studies that have
tried to address this problem typically have many methodological flaws, and
these are discussed in detail by Grant (this volume). One of the most
vexing methodological difficulties is that of finding proper controls. An
ideal study might measure a group of relevant variables before the onset of
drug abuse or dependence in subjects who are matched on a range of variables (perhaps, ideally, twins). Half of these subjects would then become
addicts; the variables would then be measured again at a later time after the
abuse or dependence has ended. Such a design is possible with animals but
probably impossible to even contemplate in humans. Nonetheless, in spite
of the complex methodological problems that are part of studying this difficult area, studies have been done that provide interesting data leading to
future research.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
One study that has examined the long-term effects of stimulants, depressants, and opiates is that done by McLellan and colleagues (1979). These
investigators followed a group of patients who were readmitted to the substance abuse units of the Coatesville Veterans Administration Medical
Center at least once every 6 months for a period of 6 years. Because of
their history of repeated admissions, these patients were some of the most
refractory and chronic substance abusers treated at that institution during the
71
years from 1972 to 1978, when the study was conducted. All subjects had
a psychiatric interview upon admission and were administered the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) approximately 2 weeks after hospitalization. This 2-week interval was selected as being sufficient for most
acute drug effects to have disappeared, thus minimizing the chances for
acute effects to interfere with the MMPI scores or psychiatric assessments.
The patients studied were grouped into three categories, based upon the
class of drugs that they used: stimulants (mainly amphetamines), depressants (barbiturates, methaqualone, glutethimide, benzodiazepines), and narcotics (heroin, hydromorphone, methadone).
The findings were very interesting. Demographic variables and MMPI
scores were similar for all subjects at their first admission. They differed
only in the drugs that they typically abused at this early stage in their drugtaking careers. A much different picture emerged over the period of the
study. The stimulant group developed significant increases in schizophreniclike symptoms, especially paranoia. The sedative abusers developed increases in depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment (vocabulary and
abstracting difficulties), and anxiety. The narcotic addicts had elevations in
depression and sociopathy upon admission, and these symptoms remained
unchanged over the 6-year period. These data are summarized in table 1.
The results were interpreted as indicating that prolonged use of stimulants
was associated with the emergence of schizophreniclike symptoms over the
6-year period; depressants were associated with depression; and narcotic
addiction resulted in no new psychiatric symptoms. These psychiatric
effects were specific to the drug of choice and were not due to acute withdrawal effects, as the evaluations were done at least 2 weeks after admission. The tentative conclusions were that the specific drug that was used
may have actually caused the observed psychiatric conditions, but these conclusions must remain tentative due to methodological problems. One of
these problems was that of controls. Since the patients were observed only
after the drug use had started, it was impossible to be certain that the
effects occurred only because of the drug and not because of an underlying,
nondrug condition that would have emerged even in the absence of drug
abuse.
Amphetamine Effects
A second line of clinical data is that of toxicity from long-term amphetamine abuse, as reported by Swedish researchers. Unlike the situation in the
United States, where polydrug use is the norm, amphetamine use in Sweden
has occurred in an almost “pure” form since 1960. This has provided a
better opportunity than that available in the United States for studies of
long-term amphetamine effects. Several observations have been made.
72
TABLE 1. Scores on psychologic tests in 1972 and 1978
Group 1
11 Men
(Psychostimulants)
Group 2
14 Men
(Psychodepressants)
Test
1972 1978
1972 1978
SILS
Mean I.Q.
Mean Cognitive
Impairment
101
93
MMPI*
Validity
General Pathology
Hypochondriasis
Depression
Hysteria
Psychopathy
Male-Female**
Paranoia
Psychasthenia
Schizophrenia
Mania
Social Inversion
52
64
61
55
60
70
64
63
56
66
64
48
103
94
54
96†
67‡
58
71
76‡
70
84‡
57
98‡
87‡
55
Group 3
26 Men
(Opiates)
1972
1978
102
93
94†
81†
104
92
102
91
54
58
61
60
54
68
60
57
58
60
63
55
51
78†
72‡
94‡
58
74‡
58
55
62
63
66
59
56
62
59
64
54
72
62
59
58
64
65
56
55
66
61
66
54
78
62
61
62
61
59
58
*MMPI values above 70 indicate severe problem areas.
**Inappropriate gender identification.
†p<.01 by paired t-test.
‡p<.05 by paired t-test.
SOURCE: McLellan et al. 1979, copyright 1979, New England Joumal of Medicine.
First, amphetamine abusers and addicts appear to diminish their use of this
drug markedly after about 10 years; in this way, amphetamine dependence
is more self-limited than other types of addiction, such as opiate dependence. The reason for this decrease in self-administration seems to be
related to the second series of observations, which are that long-term
amphetamine use produces central nervous system (CNS) toxicity.
Two kinds of toxic effects have been reported. One is paranoia with auditory or visual hallucinations. These symptoms are well-known adverse
effects of amphetamine abuse and addiction, which seem to occur more
rapidly and at lower doses after long-term use. This observation is
73
consistent with a kindling effect, as reported by Poet and colleagues (1976).
The second toxic effect is the development of choreoathetosis. This may
result from changes in dopamine receptors, as is seen with prolonged use
of antipsychotic drugs. Choreoathetosis has not been a prominent complication of amphetamine abuse or dependence in America, but it is reportedly a
well-recognized complication of long-term amphetamine use in Sweden
(Lundh and Tunving 1981).
It is uncertain if long-term cocaine abuse will produce effects similar to
those reported from Sweden with amphetamines. The data of Ricaurte and
associates (1980), reporting damage to serotonin and dopamine receptors
after administration of methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) to animals, suggests that long-term cocaine abusers should be studied for the
emergence of similar effects.
Another observation, again from the Scandinavian literature, is that amphetamine abusers and addicts have a death rate of approximately 1 percent per
year, compared to approximately 2 percent per year for opiate addicts. This
is probably due to the respiratory depressant effects that are part of opiate
administration but are not seen with stimulants (Tunving 1988).
Sedative Effects
There is an immense literature about the cognitive impairments and affective
disturbances that are produced by alcohol (Parsons et al. 1987), and a less
extensive but substantial literature on similar problems that are produced by
sedative hypnotics. Most studies of long-term sedative abuse and dependence indicate that the sedative hypnotics cause depression, anxiety, and
cognitive impairment, as indicated in the paper by McLellan and coworkers
discussed earlier and summarized in table 1. Most of these effects diminish
or disappear with prolonged abstinence. A more detailed description of
these effects is included in the chapter by Grant (this volume).
Opiate Effects
Chronic effects of opiates include those that occur during self-administration
and those that are observed in long-term addicts following detoxification.
Effects During Chronic Administration. Several studies have evaluated
the effects of chronic methadone administration; one of the first was that by
Martin and colleagues (1973). These authors examined a range of variables
in six healthy prisoners who were serving Federal sentences for drug-related
crimes in the addiction treatment and research program at Lexington, KY.
Methadone was given for approximately 14 weeks. They found that methadone suppressed normal levels of testosterone, leuteinizing hormone (LH),
and cortisol; produced sedation; decreased blood pressure, pulse, and pupil
size; and caused hemodilution and peripheral edema. These effects were
74
similar to those observed with chronic morphine administration, and the
researchers concluded that methadone’s long-term effects were very similar
to those of morphine.
Kreek (1973) studied a similar range of variables, but the subjects had been
taking methadone chronically for 2 or more years as part of a methadone
treatment program. She found no abnormalities in testosterone, LH, or
cortisol. The only hormonal value that was different from normals among
those she evaluated was prolactin, which rose shortly after receiving the
daily methadone dose and remained elevated for several hours. She interpreted these findings as indicating tolerance to most of the endocrine effects
of methadone. Her work does not contradict that of Martin and associates,
as, in short-term studies, she found effects similar to those of Martin.
Rather, it indicates that a long period of time is necessary for tolerance to
develop to many of the abnormalities that are produced during short-term
administration. Kreek also found that the edema and hemodilution observed
by Martin and coworkers are caused by an increase in secretion of antidiuretic hormone that is caused by methadone and that, with long-term
administration, tolerance also develops to this effect.
The only long-term medical problems observed by Kreek were increased
sweating, observed in 48 percent of long-term methadone patients; constipation, seen in 17 percent; decreased libido, found in 22 percent; and difficulty obtaining an erection in 14 percent. Amenorrhea was usually
observed early in treatment, but menses usually became normal after 4 to
6 months in treatment. Very slight decreases in polymorphonuclear leukocytes and in blood urea nitrogen levels and increases in lymphocytes were
also seen with long-term maintenance treatment. No changes in liver function tests were seen, and vital signs were also within normal limits (Kreek
1973; Kreek and Hartman 1982).
One interesting clinical observation that has been reported occasionally but
consistently is that of an apparent antipsychotic effect from methadone
(McKenna 1982). The data are always clinical anecdotes that typically
occurs as follows. A patient has been treated for months or years and has
been observed to be somewhat impulsive, anxious, or depressed but does
not seem to have a major psychiatric problem other than opiate dependence.
For one reason or another, this patient is detoxified. Shortly before the
detoxification is completed, or several days after the last dose of methadone
is administered, the patient becomes much more anxious. Within hours or
days, a full-blown schizophrenic disorder emerges. This requires psychiatric
hospitalization and antipsychotic medication. In some cases, the patient was
known to have schizophrenia; in other cases, there is no such history. In
retrospect, it appears that the methadone was exerting an antipsychotic effect
and that the emergence of the schizophrenia resulted from the loss of this
effect during the latter stages of detoxification. Methadone can thus be
seen as helping to “stabilize” or suppress schizophrenia in patients who are
75
free of acute symptoms. In this formulation, the removal of the methadone
“unmasks” the underlying schizophrenic process. Another observation along
these same lines is that schizophrenic addicts who are receiving methadone
and antipsychotic medication appear to require less medication than nonaddicted, nonmethadone-maintained schizophrenics (Woody and O’Brien,
unpublished observations).
It is important to emphasize the very anecdotal and clinical nature of these
observations. However, it is equally important to note that the authors have
heard many similar reports and have personally observed several instances
that demonstrate the points discussed above. The apparent antipsychotic
effect of methadone (and other narcotics) may be related to dopamine
blockade. As noted above, methadone elevates prolactin, an effect produced
by neuroleptic medication and caused by blockade of dopamine receptors
(Kreek and Hartman 1982).
Effects Following Detoxification. Dole’s original theory stated that chronic
opiate use caused permanent neurophysiological abnormalities (Dole et al.
1966). These alterations became clinically significant when addicts were
drug free and resulted in a persistent craving for narcotics following detoxification. The abnormalities were postulated to be a significant contributor
to the very high relapse rates following detoxification and other forms of
drug-free treatment. Chronic addicts thus came to need opiates in much the
way that diabetics need insulin, because they were physiologically abnormal
as a result of changes that were produced by years of opiate use. This
theory, along with that of “narcotic blockade” (raising the tolerance with
high doses of methadone so that it is almost impossible to experience narcotic effects from heroin administration) provided much of the justification
for the early experiments with methadone and for explaining its success.
Though this theory is widely quoted and respected, it has never been
proven. Other explanations for relapse have also been proposed and these
include psychosocial (Khantzian 1982, Wurmser 1982) and conditioning factors (Wikler 1973; O’Brien et al. 1984).
Although the results can be considered only tentative, because of the methodological problems mentioned earlier, several recent studies have provided
data that can be interpreted as supportive of Dole’s theory. One is the
work of Kreek (1989) who has shown abnormal responses to metyrapone in
detoxified former heroin addicts. Metyrapone blocks the 11 beta-hydroxylation of the precursor of cortisol and thereby prevents its production by the
adrenal cortex. Normal subjects will have a compensatory rise in ACTH
and beta-endotphin levels following the administration of metyrapone, in
response to the reduced levels of cortisol. Kreek has found that stabilized
methadone-maintained patients have a normal rise in adrenocorticotrophic
hormone (ACTH) and beta-endorphin following metyrapone but that detoxified former heroin addicts have a greatly exaggerated increase in the plasma
levels of beta-endorphin. Kreek’s work is preliminary and continuing, but it
76
suggests that detoxified opiate addicts may have an abnormally increased
hormonal response to stress. This abnormality could be a result of physiological alterations produced by long-term opiate use, and it may contribute
to relapse following detoxification.
A similar finding has resulted from a project that aimed to examine the
relationships between endocrine secretion and affect in opiate addicts during
methadone maintenance, detoxification, and long-term abstinence (Woody et
al. 1988). Comparisons were made between chronic opiate addicts during
four stages of treatment: stabilization on methadone for 3 to 4 months,
termed early maintenance (n=27); stabilized for 2 or more years, termed
long-term maintenance (n=10); successfully detoxified for 2 or more years,
termed long-term drug free (n=15); and normal controls (n=15).
Subjects were males, the average age was 38, and the average number of
years of opiate dependence was 7.5 years. Of the subjects, 68 percent
reported a history of other drug abuse (usually benzodiazepine or amphetamine). Subjects who had serious medical problems, current psychiatric
problems other than opiate dependence, who were currently taking any prescribed medication or illicit substance other than methadone were not
recruited for the study. Long-term abstinence was verified by interview
with an experienced research technician, by urinalysis, and by personnel
who had treated the subjects in an abstinence-oriented group. Most of the
long-term drug-free subjects were graduates of Eagleville, a nearby therapeutic community, and had been engaged in the followup program from that
institution. Controls were recruited from the hospital police force and from
housekeeping. They had no history of substance abuse and were of the
same age and socioeconomic background as the methadone patients and
drug-free group.
All subjects were admitted to the Philadelphia Veterans Administration
Medical Center inpatient ward for testing. The procedures followed on all
testing occasions and for all subjects were identical with one exception.
This was that the methadone-maintained subjects were admitted to the unit
1 or 2 days before testing, to be certain that no other drugs were taken that
would influence the measures of hormones and affect; controls and longterm drug-free subjects reported to the inpatient unit at 8 a.m. on the day of
testing.
Blood samples were obtained by means of a Sigmamotor microflow blood
withdrawal pump through an indwelling nonthrombogenic catheter placed in
the left forearm. The pump, which provides an integrated plasma sample,
was set at 10 ml per hour, and collecting tubes were changed at 30-minute
intervals over the 7-hour period (8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.). A total sample of
approximately 120 ml of blood was taken on each testing occasion. All
blood samples were centrifuged immediately after completion of each
30-minute interval, and the plasma was separated and stored at -25 °C until
77
analyzed. Hormone analyses were done by SmithKline Laboratories, using
standard assays supplied by various companies. Testosterone was analyzed
using the assays of the Diagnostic Products Corporation; prolactin assays
were from Hybritech Corporation; cortisol assays were from Clinical Assays
of Cambridge; and LH assays were from American Biotechnical
Corporation.
All methadone subjects received their daily dose at 10 a.m. A battery of
tests aimed to measure affect was administered between 9:15 and 10 a.m.
and again between 2:30 and 3:15 p.m. These times were chosen to maximize the chances of finding differences before and after receiving the daily
methadone dose. The same battery of measures were administered at identical times to the long-term drug-free subjects and the controls.
Preliminary work done on this project indicated that cortisol and prolactin
were the most variable of the four hormones studied; analyses were performed on all 14 of the 30-minute samples for these substances. The other
hormones were less variable over time; therefore, to conserve costs, the
testostemne analyses were performed on seven of the half-hour samples, and
LH analyses were computed on four of the samples. In both cases, analyses were spaced evenly over the ‘I-hour time period. These multiple
samples provided a profile of each hormone during the testing period. As
the samples were collected directly into a distal tube (attached to the subject’s waist), there was very little disruption, which might have been
reflected in the hormonal analyses, for the patient. Upon completion of the
testing procedure, the patients were discharged from the research ward and
continued on maintenance or other followup treatment.
The hormone levels are seen in figures 1 through 4, and the affect scores,
as measured on the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hopkins Symptom
Checklist-90 (SCL-90), and the Profile of Mood Scales (POMS), are seen in
figures 5 through 9.
Pmlactin levels showed the predictable rise and fall after the daily methadone dose for maintained subjects. There was some indication of tolerance,
as the curve formed by the long-term maintenance subjects was lower than
that of the early maintenance group; however, these differences were not
significant. A similar finding is seen in the higher prolactin levels of the
long-term drug-free group compared to the controls; again, these differences
were not significant. Cortisol levels in the long-term drug-free and control
subjects were almost identical, as seen in figure 2. Significant differences
were evident, however, between long-term drug-free subjects and all other
groups in the measured levels of testosterone and LH.
Significant differences were seen between the long-term drug-free subjects
and all other groups on the SCL-90 anxiety and hostility scores and on the
POMS tension and anger scores. No differences were seen between groups
78
FIGURE 1. Plasma prolactin levels by group
FIGURE 2. Plasma cortisol levels by group
on the Beck, nor were significant differences noted between the morning
and afternoon psychological testing occasions, although there were trends for
all scores to be lower in the afternoon. These differences suggested that
the long-term drug-free subjects may have experienced subtle residual drug
effects on one or more of the neurophysiological systems that regulate
affect.
79
FIGURE 3. Plasma testosterone levels by group
FIGURE 4. Plasma LH levels by group
As noted at the beginning of this chapter, methodological problems limit
any conclusions made from the changes observed above. Among such
problems is the comparability of groups. Those opiate addicts who succeed
in becoming abstinent for 2 or more years may be biologically different,
80
FIGURE 5. Beck Depression Inventory in endocrine subjects
FIGURE 6. SCL-90 data in endocrine subjects: Anxiety
psychologically different, or both from those who remain on methadone and
from nonaddict controls. The fact that the long-term drug-free subjects and
controls were not kept on the inpatient testing unit overnight may have
81
FIGURE 7. SCL-90 data in endocrine subjects: Hostility
FIGURE 8. POMS data in endocrine subjects: Tension
82
FIGURE 9. POMS data in endocrine subjects: Anger
influenced their LH and testosterone levels, along with their scores on the
SCL-90 and the POMS. The fact that the opiate addicts had also abused
other drugs may also be important; the differences observed could be a
function of any number of drug effects and have nothing to do with the
history of long-term opiate dependence.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that both studies (Kreek 1989; Woody et al.
1988) found neuroendocrine differences between the long-term drug-free
opiate addicts and the other groups studied. The elevations in SCL-90
measures of anxiety and hostility and in the POMS ratings of tension and
anger could reflect other aspects of this difference between normals and
people with a history of chronic opiate addiction. These data could be
interpreted as showing that long-term opiate use produces long-term biological alterations that are reflected in disruptions in the secretion of certain
hormones of neurotransmitters that contribute to the regulation of affect,
including anxiety, tension, hostility, and anger. These possible biological
alterations could be related to the mechanisms involved in the antipsychotic
and prolactin-elevating effects of opiates, which help to suppress symptoms
of schizophrenia in addicts who have that disease.
CONCLUSION
The finding of one or more long-term biological alterations produced by
chronic stimulant or opiate dependence would be consistent with the
Swedish clinical reports and the theories of Dole. The methodological
83
problems inherent in studying these issues are formidable, but more biologically focused studies of stimulant and opiate addicts who have had extensive addiction careers that were followed by long-term abstinence may
provide valuable information about these important questions.
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Kreek, M.J. Medical safety and side effects of methadone in tolerant individuals. JAMA 223:665-668, 1973.
Kreek, M.J. Effects of chronic opioid use. Presented at annual meeting of
the American Society for Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies.
Atlanta, GA, 1989.
Kreek, M.J, and Hartman, N. Chronic use of opiates and antipsychotic
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Lundh, H., and Tunving, K. An extrapyramidal choreiform syndrome
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Mansky, P.A.; and Carpenter, R.W. Methadone—A reevaluation. Arch
Gen Psychiatry 28:286-295, 1973.
McKenna, G. Methadone and opiate drugs: Psychotropic effect and selfmedication. In: Verbey, K., ed. Opioids in mental illness: Theories,
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McLellan, A.T.; Woody, G.E.; and O’Brien, C.P. Development of psychiatric disorders in drug abusers. N Engl J Med 301:1310-1313, 1979.
O’Brien, C.P.; Childress, A.R.; McLellan, A.T.; Termes, J.; and Ehrma,
R.N. Use of naltrexone to extinguish opioid-conditioned responses.
J Clin Psychiatry 45:53-56, 1984.
Parsons, O.A.; Butters, N.; and Nathan, P.E. Neuropsychology of Alcoholism: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment. New York: Guilford,
1987.
Post, R.M.; Kotin, J.; and Goodwin, R.R. The effects of cocaine on
depressed patients. Am J Psychiatry 131:511-517, 1976.
Ricautte, G.A.; Schuster, C.R.; and Seiden, L.S. Long-term effects of
repeated methylamphetamine administration on dopamine and serotonin
neurons in the rat brain: A regional study. Brain Res 193:153-163,
1980.
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Tunving, K. Fatal outcome in drug addiction. Acta Psychiatr Scand
77:551-566, 1988.
Wikler, A. Dynamics of drug dependence: Implications of a conditioning
theory for research. Arch Gen Psychiatry 28:611-616, 1973.
Woody, G.E., and O’Brien, C.P. Unpublished clinical observations.
Woody, G.E.; O’Brien, CP.; McLellan, A.T.; Persky, H.; and Amdt, I.A.
Hormonal secretion in methadone-dependent and abstinent subjects. In:
Harris, L.S., ed. Problems of Drug Dependence, 1987. Proceedings of
the 49th Annual Scientific Meeting the Committee on Problems of Drug
Dependence, Inc. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph
81. DHHS Pub. No. (ADM)88-1564. Washington, DC: Supt. of Docs.,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1988. pp. 216223.
Wurmser, L. The question of specific psychopathology in compulsive drug
use. In: Verbey, K., ed. Opioids in mental illness: Theories, clinical
observations, and treatment possibilities. Ann NY Acad Sci 398:33-43,
1982.
AUTHORS
George E. Woody, M.D.
A. Thomas McClellan, Ph.D.
Charles P. O’Brien, M.D., Ph.D.
Drug Dependence Treatment and Research Center
University of Pennsylvania
and
Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center
39th and Woodland Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19104
85
Adaptive Behavior in Recovering
Female Phencyclidine/Polysubstance Abusers
Judy Howard, Leila Beckwith, and Carol Rodning
INTRODUCTION
Abuse of phencyclidine hydrochloride (PCP) continues to be a significant
problem in urban areas of the United States. In Los Angeles County, PCP
abuse reached its height in 1983. At that time, 30 percent of PCP abusers
were women of childbearing age whose first use of PCP occurred at
20 years of age (Husson 1984). Currently, PCP abuse has moved from the
south-central region of Los Angeles County to East Los Angeles.
PCP is inexpensive, readily obtainable, and generally used in combination
with other drugs such as marijuana, heroin, and alcohol (Golden et al.
1982). Most recently, it has been used with cocaine and its derivative,
“crack” cocaine. Polysubstance abuse was characteristic of the women in
our study at the University of California, Los Angeles (table 1).
PCP can be injected, inhaled, or taken orally. In behavioral research, the
pharmacological effects of PCP have been compared most often with those
of amphetamines, sympathomimetic stimulants, pentobarbital, or central nervous system depressants (Balster and Baird 1979; Balster and Chait 1978;
Balster and Wessinger 1983). PCP also has its own unique effects. For
instance, adults who have been intoxicated with PCP describe numbness in
their extremities and a feeling of dissociation of their limbs. Awareness of
space is altered so that depth perception and the angles of floors, doors, and
walls appear distorted (Balster 1980). Organization of sensory input-olfaction, temperature, pain, vision, and audition-also is impaired (Pender
1971). In human behavioral studies, high doses of PCP produced disturbing
manifestations, including psychosis, increased irritability, and argumentative
states (Pradhan 1984; Javitt 1987).
86
TABLE 1. Percentage of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in drug-abusing
and drug-nonabusing mothers
PCP*
Mean Years of Use†
Cocaine*
Mean Years of Use†
Opiate*
IV Drugs†
Marijuana†
Alcohol
Tobacco Cigarettes
Drug-Abusing
n=47
Drug-Nonabusing
n=38
100%
6.3
42%
1.8
0
0
-
3%
20%
20%
75%
60%
0
0
0
20%
26%
*From infant toxicology screen.
†From maternal report.
AIM OF THE STUDY
Although this chapter focuses on the mothers’ symptoms and behaviors during use and abstinence, the primary purpose of the study was to identify
specific behavioral changes in the offspring of women who used PCP during pregnancy. Our specific aims were to do the following:
1.
Compare PCP-exposed infants with matched groups of drugnonexposed infants for attention regulation, social interaction,
motor patterns, and cognitive development through year 2.
2.
Compare PCP-exposed infants being reared in foster homes with
PCP-exposed infants being reared by biologic parent(s) for attention regulation, social interaction, motor patterns, and cognitive
development through year 2.
3.
Assess the influence of other significant factors on development at
2 years, including maternal obstetrical problems; other drug, alcohol, and cigarette use; adequacy of prenatal care; neonatal complications; and the adequacy of the rearing environment.
Two groups of PCP-exposed infants were studied: (1) those placed by
court order in foster homes, and (2) those discharged home to their parents
after birth. In addition, a third group of drug-nonexposed infants reared by
their biologic parents was selected. We provided intensive supportive services to caregivers of all subjects—both PCP-exposed and drug-nonexposed
87
infants—to reduce subject attrition, which is a significant problem in this
population, and to promote stability within the caregiving environment.
Table 2 provides a description of the sample population.
TABLE 2. Sample description
Mothers
Recruited at Infant’s Birth
Attrition*
Discharged†
Maintained in Study
Drug Abusers in Recovery
Drug Abusers
47
6%
11%
39
20% (8 of 39)
Drug Nonusers
38
26%
0
28
0
*Attrition: Mother discontinued participation by own initiative.
†Discharge: Mother’s participation was discontinued by project staff because of safety concems, despite
mother’s desire to continue involvement in the study.
RECOVERING ADDICTS IN STUDY
Among the 47 women in the study who were chronic addicts, there
appeared to be 7 women who had stopped using drugs. These seven
women had abstained from drug use for 1 or 2 years. The nonusing status
of these women has been determined by maternal report to our support staff
and by the staffs observations of the mothers’ behaviors.
In the total addict sample of 47 women, 7 completed drug-treatment programs varying in length from 9 to 18 months and including both residential
and outpatient formats. Seventeen attended but did not complete drugtreatment programs.
Of the seven women who completed drug-treatment programs, five are presently drug free. Of these five drug-free women, three completed 9-month
outpatient drug-treatment programs, one completed a 9-month residential
program, and one completed an 18-month residential program. One woman
attended but did not complete a 9-month outpatient program and is presently
drug free. The seventh woman who is drug free did not attend any drugtreatment program.
The length of drug use in the seven recovering addicts ranged from 5 to
20 years, with a mean of 10.25 years, while a mean of 6.3 years was found
for the entire addict sample. Six of the seven women were polysubstance
abusers, reporting use of as many as five different substances, including
PCP, amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. One woman
reported using only PCP.
88
The mean age of the recovering women was 27.3 years, whereas the mean
age for the total addict sample was 27.1 years. Formal education ranged
from 8 to 14 years in the total addict sample, with a mean of 11 years for
the seven drug-free women, compared with a mean of 11.1 years for the
entire drug-using sample. Further maternal subject descriptions can be
found in table 3. All drug-abusing mothers in the study received Aid to
Families with Dependent Children.
TABLE 3. Maternal subject description
Drug Abusers
n=47
Mean Age*
Range
Mean Years Education*
Range
Welfare
Marital Status
Ethnicity
Prenatal Care at Any Time
During Pregnancy
Prenatal Care in First Trimester
Mean Number of Pregnancies*
Mean Number of Deliveries*
27.1
16-37
11.1
8-13
94%
95% single
90% black
75%
22%
5.2
2.7
Drug Nonusers
n=38
21.9
16-32
12.3
10-16
56%
69% single
97% black
97%
63%
2.4
1.2
*Groups significantly different, p<.05.
Of particular interest is the fact that, of the women in the total drug-using
sample, the recovering addicts had the longest history of substance abuse.
Furthermore, it is not clear why these seven women were able to abstain
from drug use. Most had family histories of intergenerational substance
abuse, as well as physical abuse or neglect during childhood. Other
mothers in the drug-using sample had more responsive relationships with
their children, better self-esteem, greater self-reflection, and better social
skills; we would have predicted that they were more likely to achieve success in abstaining from substance abuse.
DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE OF BEHAVIOR IN THE SEVEN
DRUG-FREE WOMEN
Sexual behavior and responsibility for birth control in the recovering addict
group did not differ from that in the group that continued to abuse drugs.
89
Both the abstaining and substance-abusing mothers had a repeat pregnancy
occurrence of 50 percent after their initial enrollment in our study. Clinically, a number of the women indicated a distaste for physical contact
(including sexual intercourse) and a sensitivity to being touched when high
on drugs. This sensitivity continued after the discontinuation of drug abuse,
but did not appear to alter their sexual and birth-control behavior.
To determine behavioral impairment in these women during substance abuse
and recovery, we administered two measures: (1) the Hopkins Symptom
Checklist (Derogatis 1973); and (2) the Adaptive Skills Inventory (Jones and
Lanyon 1973).
The Hopkins Symptom Checklist, a self-report screening questionnaire designed to detect psychiatric symptoms, was administered to all seven drugfree women. While using drugs, all seven reported somatic symptoms such
as headaches, sweating, trembling, poor appetite, fast heart rate and pounding heart, and little sleep but no fatigue. These somatic symptoms abated
during the recovery phase, when the women reported occasional headaches
differing in intensity and improved appetite with subsequent weight gain.
Symptoms of emotional lability-including crying easily, restlessness, low
frustration tolerance, and unprovoked violence and aggression towards others
(even towards individuals unknown to the subjects)--were present in all
seven women when they were using drugs.
Examples of various women’s responses to items on the questionnaire
included the following:
“I would have violent fights with my boyfriend . . . I had many
injuries and caused many injuries.”
“I would fight anyone who touched me.”
“When high, I would attack people. I was extremely violent.”
“My head would tell me things that were not true or were not there.
It seems someone was always after me.”
“I was on the race track all the time because the PCP told me we
could conquer the world.”
“I didn’t want anything, only drugs, didn’t even want shoes.”
“My son begged me not to smoke. He was afraid I would die and
then I could not take care of him.”
Yet these women reported that, off drugs, their physical violence stopped
and they felt more in control.
90
In summary, while on drugs, the level of symptoms reported by the women
occurred at a level indicative of a psychiatric disorder. During the recovery
period, the women reported 80 percent fewer symptoms.
The Hopkins Symptom Checklist provided useful information about the
types of symptomatology—both somatic and psychological-experienced by
these women on and off drugs. However, it was not sensitive to the continuing difficulties in daily functioning and organization that were apparent
both to the women themselves and to the support staff.
Clinical staff continued to observe behavioral impairments in these women
after the cessation of drug use. These deviant behaviors included an inability or an impaired ability to generalize information, a tendency to be overliteral in interpreting communications, childlike and self-referent responses
in social situations, difficulties with short-term memory, and continuing
problems with getting lost.
Many of these women had difficulty following simple, well-learned instructions on preparing a meal or finding a familiar place. They would report
that they had to “think real hard” before answering questions, often finding
it necessary to repeat words or phrases that had just been expressed to
them. Some of the women reported difficulty distinguishing the time of
day, week, month, or year, as well as difficulty remembering significant
dates such as birthdays. One woman still reported nightmares (but not
flashbacks), and all the women reported sleep difficulties, mostly in terms
of a type of restlessness.
To explore further specifics regarding these women’s behavior, three
vignettes from the Adaptive Skills Inventory were administered. This inventory was designed to study chronic alcoholics’ problems in handling day-today situations. We adapted the vignettes to make them more appropriate to
our population. The three situations presented to these seven mothers were:
(1) A fast-food restaurant serves you the wrong items-what do you do?
(2) A friend betrays your confidence to another friend-what do you do?
and (3) You have a dispute with your significant other-what do you do?
Unlike their responses while on drugs, when off drugs the recovering
addicts indicated that they would use strategies other than physical violence
to resolve each of these problems. Examples of their responses include the
following:
Vignette 1, on-drug response: “I would jump on the person behind
the counter and go off on her. I would make a big scene.”
Vignette 1, off-drug response: “I would ask her to change the
order, maybe curse her out . . . if no response, I would call for the
manager.”
91
Vignette 2, on-drug response: “If I were still using, I would be
throwing bottles and everything at that woman’s house. They would
probably have to call the police.”
Vignette 2, off-drug response: “I would first say, ‘I didn’t say
those things.’ I would not still be her friend.”
Vignette 3, on-drug response: “I’d get high, as usual, after a fight.”
Vignette 3, off-drug response: “I’d probably be glad he left. If he
can’t act right, he needs to leave.”
DISCUSSION
The information learned from these women’s responses is preliminary and
qualitative, yet useful. Even though our research design did not include a
specific study of psychopathology in the mothers of the project infants, it
was apparent to us through our clinical observations that the mothers’ behaviors were deviant both on drugs and off. In addition, extensive interviews with family members indicated that these aberrant behaviors occurred
following substance abuse.
We also found a neurological dysfunction for the infants of many of these
PCP-abusing mothers. Neonatal symptomatology included greater apathy,
jitters, irritability, and abnormalities in muscle tone and reflexes. Behavioral
measurements at 6 and 15 months by the Gesell Developmental Examination showed language impoverishment and a significantly lower developmental quotient. Qualitative analysis of the PCP-exposed children’s play indicated some ataxia; poor abduction and extension of fingers, hands, and
arms, with some intentional tremor. Additional descriptive data are presented in table 4.
TABLE 4. Infant subject description
Mean Gestational Age (weeks)
Range
Mean Birthweight* (gm)
Range
Mean Crown-Heel Length* (cm)
Range
Mean Head Circumference (cm)
Range
Drug Exposed
Drug Nonexposed
39.2
34-42
2,919.8
1,580-3,970
49.4
41-56
32.7
28-36
39.5
34-42
3,383.1
2,550-4,150
51.3
46-54
33.5
22-36
*Group significantly different, p<.05.
92
We believe that the problems of life adaptation that, in these women, seem
to coincide with chronic substance abuse require further study. The preconceived psychiatric nosology used to describe and diagnose psychiatric illness did not seem appropriate for understanding the kinds of impairments
we noted in these recovering addicts.
The behavioral descriptions recounted previously were difficult to capture
using existing testing instruments. We had to adapt the few measures that
seemed relevant and then fall back on self-report. Nonetheless, these
measures-inadequate as they were-supported our clinical observations that
recovering addicts have continued difficulties following discontinuation of
drug use.
It is obvious, on the basis of both self-report and our behavioral observations, that these women acted less violently, were less impulsive, and had
more self-control when off drugs. Yet, even though they functioned better
during recovery, they reported residual difficulties with day-to-day functioning, including problems in providing a consistent routine for their children. For example, analysis (when the infants were 3 and 9 months old) of
the interaction of previously drug-exposed infants with their caregiver indicated that mothers who had originally abused PCP and continued to care for
their children were less accepting and sensitive to the needs of the children,
as assessed by the Ainsworth sensitivity scale (Ainsworth et al. 1978). The
interaction of the mothers with their children indicated that many of these
mothers appeared very immature.
Interpretation of the cause for these deviant behaviors is of utmost importance. One obvious etiology would be the effects of environmental deprivation, with subsequent diminution in cognitive abilities. Another etiology
would be chronic brain impairment caused by polysubstance abuse. Such a
model is well documented in reports of the behavioral deterioration seen in
chronic alcoholics.
We understand that recovering addicts must fight a daily battle against the
physical and psychological urge to use drugs. However, this concentration
on abstinence cannot be construed as the sole cause of recovering addicts’
inability to solve problems and function consistently and independently.
This preliminary evidence suggests a residual central nervous system impairment resulting from chronic polysubstance abuse. More strategies are
needed to assess these impairments, as well as to assess behavioral
strengths, if effective treatment programs are to be developed for substanceabusing individuals and their families.
REFERENCES
Ainsworth, M.; Bleher, M.; Waters, E.; and Wall, S. Patterns of Attachment. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1978.
93
Balster, R.L. The effects of phencyclidine and three analogues on motor
performance in mice. Pharmacology 20:46-51, 1980.
Balster, R.L., and Baird, J.B. The effects of phencyclidine, D-amphetamine
and pentobarbital on spaced responding in mice. Pharmacol Biochem
Behav 11:617-623, 1979.
Balster, R.L., and Chait, L.D. The effects of phencyclidine on amphetamine
stereotypy in rats. Eur J Pharmacol 48:445-450, 1978.
Balster, R.L, and Wessinger, W.D. Central nervous system depressant
effects of phencyclidine. In: Kamenka, J.M.; Domino, E.F.; and
Geneste, P., eds. Phencyclidine and Related Arylcyclohexymines: Present
and Future Applications. Ann Arbor: NPP Books, 1983.
Derogatis, L.R.; Lipman, R.S.; Covil, L. SCL-90, An outpatient psychiatric
rating scale—preliminary report. Psychopharmacol Bull 9:13-28, 1973.
Golden, N.L; Sokol, R.J.; Martier, S.; and Miller, S.I. A practical method
for identifying angel dust abuse during pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol
142:359-360, 1982.
Husson, B.S. Trends and epidemiology of drug abuse. In: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental
Health. Proceedings of Community Epidemiology Work Group. Washington, DC: Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., June 1984.
Javitt, D.C. Negative schizophrenic symptomatology and the PCP (phencyclidine) model of schizophrenia. Hillside Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
9(1):12-35, 1987.
Jones, S., and Lanyon, R.I. Relationship between adaptive skills and outcome of alcoholism treatment. J Stud Alcohol 42:521-525, 1983.
Pender, J.W. Dissociative amnesia. JAMA 215:1126-1130, 1971.
Pradhan, S.N. Phencyclidine (PCP): Some human studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 8(4):493-501, 1984.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following staff ensured the success of this research project: Eleanor
Baxter, M.A., Jacquelyn Dickens, M.S.W., Clementine Royston, A.A., and
Sarah Simpson, MA., provided comprehensive early intervention for project
infants, their families, and foster parents. Rachelle Tyler, M.D., performed
health and developmental examinations. The research for the study reported
in this chapter was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant
R01 DA 4139.
AUTHORS
Judy Howard, M.D.
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Leila Beckwith, Ph.D.
Professor
94
Carol Rodning, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Professor
Department of Pediatrics
UCLA School of Medicine
23-10 Rehabilitation Center
Los Angeles, CA 90024
95
Long-Term Marijuana Use and
Subsequent Effects on Learning
and Cognitive Functions Related to
School Achievement: Preliminary
Study
Robert I. Block, Sara Farnham, Kathleen Braverman,
Russell Noyes, Jr., and M.M. Ghoneim
INTRODUCTION
Adverse effects of chronic marijuana use on learning, memory, and cognition are of serious concern in view of the widespread use of this drug,
especially as use has extended into progressively younger age groups. Clinical impressions of many observers suggest that chronic marijuana use
impairs cognitive function (National Institute on Drug Abuse 1982). Surprisingly, although acute impairment of memory from single marijuana
doses has been frequently and rigorously demonstrated, experimental studies
of chronic marijuana effects on learning, memory, and cognition have generally been methodologically weak, ambiguous in outcome, or both. Of about
a dozen such studies conducted in the United States and Canada (Entin and
Goldzung 1973; Weckowicz and Janssen 1973) and a similar number elsewhere (Wig and Varma 1977), approximately one-fourth reported that chronic marijuana use adversely affected cognition (Soueif 1971); the rest did not
find such effects.
One crucial requirement for evaluating the performance of chronic marijuana
users is comparison with an appropriately matched group of nonusing subjects. Short of an extremely expensive longitudinal study that follows children over many years, the most desirable procedure is to match groups of
users and nonusers on some measure of intellectual functioning obtained
before the onset of drug use. Only one past study (Culver and King 1974)
followed such a procedure. The absence of chronic marijuana effects in
this study could be due to the minimal criteria set for marijuana use (use at
96
least twice a month for 1 year or more, with no use before entering
college).
In a continuing study, we have been examining cognitive effects of chronic
marijuana use by comparing the performance of marijuana users and nonusers. Scores during the fourth grade of grammar school on the Iowa Tests
of Basic Skills (Hieronymus et al. 1982), standardized tests that have been
administered to almost all grammar school children in Iowa for several decades, have been retrieved for all subjects. These scores will be used to
establish that the marijuana users were comparable to the nonusers in their
intellectual functioning before they began using marijuana. When completed, the study is expected to determine whether chronic marijuana use produces cognitive impairments and, if so, whether these impairments depend
on the frequency of use.
Subjects in the study participated in two test sessions under nondrug conditions. In one session, they were administered the 12th-grade versions of the
Iowa Tests (Iowa Tests of Educational Development), which emphasize
basic, general intellectual abilities and academic skills and effective utilization of previously, i.e., preexperimentally, acquired information in verbal
and mathematical areas. In the other session, subjects were administered
computerized tests that emphasize learning and remembering new information, concept formation, associative processes, semantic memory retrieval
and psychomotor performance. The 12th-grade Iowa Tests were administered to maximally exploit the advantage we had (relative to past studies)
from equating the groups of marijuana users and nonusers on their fourthgrade Iowa Test scores. Iowa Test scores show considerable stability over
time, with substantial correlations between individuals’ scores in 4th and
12th grades obtained 8 years apart (r=.68 before and r=.77 after correction
for attenuation because of dropout from the sample) (Scannell 1958). The
computerized tests were developed with other goals in mind: we favored
(1) tasks that were sensitive to acute effects of marijuana and other drugs in
our preliminary studies (Block and Berchou 1984; Block and Wittenbom
1985); (2) tasks that other investigators had found sensitive to effects of
marijuana, either acutely or (in the limited data available) following chronic
use; and (3) tasks relevant to the skills required in school and work performance. Learning and remembering new information was a major focus be
cause the only two American studies that suggested substantial adverse
effects of chronic marijuana use involved memory tasks (Entin and
Goldzung 1973; Gianutsos and Litwack 1976).
METHOD
Subjects and Screening
Volunteers were recruited through local news media and were paid for participation. During a preliminary screening visit, they provided permission to
97
retrieve their fourth-grade scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, a urine
sample for drug screening, and information about their medical history,
demographic characteristics, and use of marijuana and other drugs (Johnston
et al. 1981). They were asked to classify their average weekly frequency of
using marijuana or other cannabis products as “not at all,” “less than once,”
“1 to 4 times,” “5 to 6 times,” or “7 or more times” and to indicate the
duration of their use at this frequency. Portions of the Diagnostic Interview
Schedule (DIS) Version III-A (Robins and Helzer 1985), a structured psychiatric screening interview for use by research staff, were administered.
So that their scores on the Iowa Tests could be retrieved, subjects were
restricted to adults (age range 18 to 42 years) who had attended the fourth
grade of grammar school in Iowa between 1956 and 1980. Marijuana users
were restricted to individuals who had used marijuana or other cannabis
products at least weekly for the last 2 years or more. Nonusers were
restricted to individuals who had not used marijuana more than twice in
their lives. Efforts were made to restrict subjects to individuals having
limited experience with drugs other than marijuana, but the initial exclusion
criteria concerning use of other drugs had to be relaxed to avoid rejecting
an excessive percentage of “heavy” marijuana users.
Although the final sample for the study will consist of 144 marijuana users
and 72 nonusers, the present report is based on 102 marijuana users and 89
nonusers who completed the study through January 1989. Since nonusers
were relatively easier to recruit than marijuana users, an extra 17 nonusers
were tested before curtailing their enrollment so that subsequent matching of
groups on fourth-grade Iowa Test scores could be done primarily by dropping excess nonusers. No marijuana users were excluded or dropped based
on their fourth-grade scores. Among the marijuana users, the reported frequency of using marijuana was 1 to 4 times weekly for 41, 5 to 6 times
weekly for 23, and 7 or more times weekly for 38.
Procedure
Subjects were tested in two sessions. They agreed to obtain at least
7 hours sleep on the nights before the sessions and to abstain from caffeine
and nicotine during the sessions, from alcohol on the days of the sessions
and after 6 p.m. on the preceding evenings, and from marijuana and other
drugs for 24 hours before the sessions.
In the first session, which lasted about 3 hours including a rest, the tests of
Vocabulary, Correctness and Appropriateness of Expression, Ability To Do
Quantitative Thinking, and Ability To Interpret Literary Materials from the
Iowa Tests of Educational Development (Level II) were administered along
with the Short Test of Educational Ability (Level 5) a test of general academic ability standardized with the Iowa Tests (Science Research Associates
1981). The tests were administered according to procedures specified in the
98
test manuals (Iowa Testing Programs 1987; Science Research Associates
1974). All were pencil-and-paper tests in multiple-choice format. The
tasks involved were as follows:
1.
Correctness and Appropriateness of Expression: (a) deciding which of
several alternative versions of a specified portion of a short text best
expressed the idea, made the statement grammatically correct or most
precise, was worded most consistently with the style and tone of the
text, or was correctly punduated or capitalized. The subject could refer
to the text while answering the questions; and (b) picking which of
several words was misspelled.
2. Ability To Interpret Literary Materials: answering questions assessing
comprehension of a short text. The subject could refer to the text while
answering the questions.
3. Ability To Do Quantitative Thinking: solving mathematical word problems drawn from practical realistic situations and answering questions
assessing understanding of basic mathematical concepts.
4.
Vocabulary: picking which of several words was the closest synonym
for a specified word.
5. Short Test of Educational Ability: answering four types of questions
involving vocabulary (as on the Vocabulary test), arithmetic reasoning
(computation), letter series (recognizing the pattern in a specified series
of letters and choosing the next letter in the series), and symbol manipulation (recognizing symbolic quantitative relations, e.g., “If AB=C and
A decreases, does C increase or decrease?“).
In the second session, which lasted about 2.5 hours, computerized learning
and cognitive tests-free and constrained associations, paired-associate
learning, text learning, Buschke’s Selective Reminding Task, concept formation, and psychomotor performance (discriminant reaction time and critical
flicker fusion)-were administered by an Apple II Plus computer system.
Subjects viewed stimuli on a video monitor and other display devices and
responded orally or by pressing buttons. A delayed memory test was then
given.
Two alternate versions of the computerized tests using distinct but comparable stimuli and two equated forms of the 12th-grade Iowa Tests (Forms
X-8 and Y-8) were each used with about half of the marijuana users and
nonusers, as were two different sequences of administration of the tests.
99
Statistical Analyses
For preliminary analyses of the data, the small sample of subjects using
marijuana five to six times weekly was pooled with the subjects using
marijuana seven or more times weekly to form a group of “heavy” marijuana users for comparison with the “light” marijuana users (one to four
times weekly) and nonusers. Differences between these groups on 12thgrade Iowa Test scores were examined by one-way analyses of variance; if
significance was established, between-group differences were then analyzed
by Tukey tests (Winer 1971). Similar analyses were done to examine the
comparability of the groups on fourth-grade Iowa Test scores, age, and
education. Their comparability on categorical demographic characteristics
was checked by chi-square tests. A significance level of p<.05 was used
for all tests.
RESULTS
Comparability of the Groups
Figure 1 shows the subjects’ fourth-grade Iowa Test scores. Before the
onset of drug use, the heavy users, light users, and nonusers were comparable on the Composite score averaged over all tests and on scores for
four of the five individual tests. On one test, Language Skills, the nonusers
performed better than either group of marijuana users. Table 1 shows the
subjects’ demographic characteristics. The heavy users, light users, and
nonusers were comparable with respect to age, education, race, work status,
annual income, and Hollingshead Occupational Scale scores, but not sex.
Most marijuana users were men, while most nonusers were women. The
percentage of men was 80 percent for both heavy users and light users but
only 30 percent for nonusers.
Three heavy marijuana users and three nonusers met criteria on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for a history of major depressive episodes, but
none was currently depressed. No subjects met criteria on the Diagnostic
Interview Schedule for a history of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Marijuana Use
Heavy and light users reported using marijuana at their indicated frequencies
for averages (means plus or minus standard errors) of 6.5±0.5 years and
6.2±0.7 years, respectively. They started use in similar grades: 9.9±0.3
and 10.0±0.4, respectively. Figure 2 shows frequency distributions for duration of marijuana use and grade of first use. After the study began, a question was added about the number of times subjects smoked marijuana on an
average day. The 27 heavy users who were asked this question reported
smoking marijuana 2.4±0.5 times on an average day.
100
FIGURE 1. Performance of subjects on the Iowa Tests of Basic
Skills during the fourth grade of grammar school
*F=7.7, p<.001 for difference between heavy users, light users, and nonusers in one-way
analysis of variance.
†Differs from nonosers by followup Tukey tests, p<.05.
KEY: 4=fourth grade, 5=fifth grade, etc. VOCAB=Vocabulary, READ=Reading Comprehension,
LANG=Language Skills, MATH=Mathematics Skills, WORK-ST=Work-Study Skills,
COMP=Composite Score.
NOTE:
Vertical lines indicate standard errors.
Of the nonusers, 96 percent reportedly never used marijuana, and 4 percent
had tried it once or twice in their lives.
Use of Other Drugs
Figures 3, 4, and 5 show the lifetime experience of the participants with
alcohol and illicit drugs other than marijuana. Data are shown for the
heavy users, light users, and nonusers.
The light marijuana users had limited experience with other illicit drugs,
and the nonusers had virtually none. None of the light users and nonusers
met criteria for a history of dependence on other illicit drugs on the
101
Diagnostic Interview schedule, reported using any such drugs more than
twice in the last month, or showed any other illicit drugs in urine specimens. Except for one light marijuana user, none of the light users and
nonusers met criteria for a history of alcohol dependence on the Diagnostic
Interview Schedule.
TABLE 1. Demographic characteristics of subjects
Heavy Users
(n=61)
Light Users
(n=41)
Nonusers
(n=89)
Age (years, M±SE)
23.9±0.6
23.4±0.8
22.1±0.5
Education (years, M±SE)
14.3±0.2
14.5±0.3
14.1±0.2
Work Status (percent)
Employed (nonstudents)
Employed (students)
Unemployed*
30
41
30
20
37
44
16
47
37
Annual Income (percent)
Under $15,000
$15,000 to $35,000
82
18
90
10
80
20
Hollingshead Occupational
Scale Score** (percent)
1, 2, or 3
4 or 5
6, 7, 8, or 9
40
40
21
37
21
42
36
30
34
Sex (percent)
Men
Women
80
20
80
20
30
70
100
0
98
2
99
1
Characteristics
Race (percent)
White
Black or Asian
*All the unemployed subjects were students except for four heavy users and two light users.
**Excludes the unemployed and seven employed students who did not indicate their occupations.
Occupations are scored on a nine-point scale. Lower scores indicate less status.
NOTE:
Analyses of variance for age and education and chi-square tests for the categorical2
=48.6,
characteristics showed no significant differences among groups except for sex,
p<.001.
102
FIGURE 2. Frequency distributions for marijuana use histories
NOTE:
Years of Use (left) shows how long the heavy and light marijuana users had reportedly been
using marijuana at their indicated frequencies. Grade of First Use (right) shows the school
year during which the heavy and light users first tried marijuana. Grade of first use was not
provided by one heavy user and one light user.
Approximately two-thirds of the heavy marijuana users had no history of
dependence on other illicit drugs, did not report using any such drugs more
than twice in the last month, did not show any in urine specimens, and had
no history of alcohol dependence. The remaining heavy marijuana users did
show one or more (average 1.3) of these characteristics. Stimulants and
psychedelics were the illicit drugs with which heavy marijuana users had
the most other experience; they had considerably less experience with
depressants (figure 3).
103
FIGURE 3. Use of drugs other than marijuana by subjects who were
heavy marijuana users
KEY: Alc=alcohol, Coc=cocaine, Amphet=amphetamines, LSD=lysergic acid diethylamide, Other
Psy=psychedelic drugs other than LSD, Tran=tranquilizers, Other Nar=narcotic drugs other than
heroin, Nitri=amyl or butyl nitrites, Barb=barbituates, Qua=methaqualone (Quaalude),
Heroin=heroin, PCP=phencyclidine.
NOTE:
Areas within bars represent the percentages reporting use of that drug the indicated number of
times in their lifetime.
Impairments From Marijuana Use
Figure 6 shows performance on the 12th-grade versions of the Iowa Tests
and the Short Test of Educational Ability. The heavy users, light users,
and nonusers performed comparably on four of the five tests. On the
Expression test, the heavy users performed worse than either the nonusers
or light users. The latter two groups did not differ.
104
FIGURE 4.
NOTE:
Use of drugs other than marijuana by subjects who were light
marijuana users
Format and abbreviation are the same as in figure 3.
DISCUSSION
If the study were complete and did not involve any measure of intellectual
abilities before the onset of marijuana use or any computerized learning and
cognitive tests, its conclusion would be that light, chronic marijuana use
produces no cognitive impairment while heavy, chronic use produces a
small but statistically significant impairment of verbal expressive skills without concomitant impairment of vocabulary, reading comprehension,
105
FIGURE 5.
NOTE:
Use of drugs other than marijuana by subjects who were
nonusers of marijuana
Format and abbreviations are the same as in figure 3.
mathematical abilities, or general abilities. There are four main ways this
conclusion must be hedged.
First, more marijuana users must be tested. Also, more male nonusers must
be tested to make the users and nonusers comparable in sex distribution.
These subjects might perform differently than those tested so far.
Second, among the 4th-grade tests, the only one that showed a difference
between groups (Language Skills) was the one most closely related to
Expression, the only 12th-grade test that showed a difference between
106
FIGURE 6. Performance on the 12th-grade versions of the Iowa Tests of
Educational Development (standard scores) and the Short
Test of Educational Ability (quotient score)
*F=6.8, p<.01 for difference between heavy users, light users, and nonusers in one-way
analysis of variance.
*Differs from nonusers and from light users by followup Tukey tests, p<.05.
KEY: VOCAB=Vocabulary, LIT=Ability To Interpret Literary Materials, EXP=Correctness and Appropriateness of Expression, QUAN=Ability To Do Quantitative Thinking, EDUC=Short Test of
Educational Ability.
NOTE:
The fourth-grade tests most comparable to VOCAB, UT, EXP, and QUAN are Vocabulary,
Reading Comprehension, Language Skills, and Mathematics Skills, respectively. Vertical lines
indicate standard errors.
groups. Thus, the apparent impairment of the heavy marijuana users on
Expression may disappear when the final groups of subjects, balanced on
fourth-grade test scores, have been formed. The final selection of nonusers
cannot be made until the remaining marijuana users have been enrolled in
the study, since this selection will be determined by a metric matching the
users and nonusers as closely as possible. To avoid leaving the question
completely in limbo at this point, however, a quick selection of nonusers of
the planned final group size (n=72) was made by deleting the extra 17 nonusers who had the highest Language Skills scores, except for those who
were male or above the average age of all subjects (since the marijuana
users were disproportionately male and slightly, albeit nonsignificantly, older
than the nonusers). Reanalyses of the resulting groups showed that these
deletions eliminated the significant differences between heavy users, light
107
users, and nonusers on Language Skills scores without introducing any new
significant differences among groups on other fourth-grade test scores or
demographic characteristics. The mean Language Skills score of the
remaining 72 nonusers was 5.5±0.1. Reanalysis of scores on the 12th-grade
Expression test continued to show a significant difference between groups,
F=4.7, p<.05, the mean Expression score of the remaining nonusers being
24.4±0.5. As before, Tukey tests showed that the heavy users performed
worse than either the nonusers or the light users, while the latter two
groups did not differ from each other. This tentatively suggests that the
apparent impairment of the heavy marijuana users on Expression may persist when the final groups of subjects have been formed.
Although the percentage of women remained lower among the marijuana
users than among the nonusers even after deleting the extra 17 female nonusers, additional analyses suggested that the results were not just artifacts of
sex differences: (1) although women performed slightly better than men on
the 4th-grade Language Skills and 12th-grade Expression tests, neither the
sex difference nor the interaction of sex with groups was significant for
either test; (2) when all women were excluded and only the male heavy
users, light users, and nonusers were analyzed, the groups did not differ on
4th-grade Language Skills scores but continued to show a significant difference on 12th-grade Expression scores, F=3.2, p<.05, despite the small
number of male nonusers tested to date (n=27). For men, the mean scores
for Language Skills were 5.1 for heavy users, 5.3 for light users, and 5.4
for nonusers. The corresponding scores for Expression were 22.2, 24.7, and
24.1, respectively. The corresponding scores for women were 5.1 for heavy
users, 5.2 for light users, and 5.6 for nonusers for Language Skills and
23.8, 26.5, and 24.5 for Expression, respectively.
The third qualifier to the apparent conclusion is that the Iowa Tests generally emphasize utilization of previously (preexperimentally) acquired information and skills, while most of the computerized tests given in the second
test session emphasize learning and remembering new information. One of
the hypotheses of the study is that chronic marijuana use may more adversely affect learning and remembering new information than other cognitive functions, so that the computerized tests may be more sensitive than the
Iowa Tests to adverse effects of marijuana use. Whether this hypothesis
will be supported is unknown, since the results of the computerized tests
have not yet been examined.
Finally, although the heavy marijuana users as a group were much more
experienced with marijuana than with any other illicit drug, individuals who
had experimented with other drugs had to be included to obtain enough
subjects. Before concluding that any impairment shown by the heavy users
was attributable to marijuana, additional analyses examining the possible
contribution of other drug use will be necessary.
108
A “purer” group of exclusive users of marijuana might be obtained by
recruiting in more densely populated areas than Iowa. However, heavy
marijuana use is correlated with use of other drugs throughout the United
States (Johnston 1980; Johnston 1981). Isolating the effects of individual
drugs like marijuana on learning and cognitive function is crucial from a
scientific viewpoint, but the combined effects of using multiple drugs may
be of even greater practical concern. The general approach we have been
using for examining cognitive effects of chronic marijuana use could profitably be applied in examining cognitive effects of chronic use of multiple
drugs. Whatever drug or drugs are under investigation, selecting groups
that are equated for intellectual functioning before the onset of drug use
allows much greater confidence in the conclusions.
NOTES ADDED IN PROOF
When the study described in this chapter was completed, the reported frequency of using marijuana within the final sample of 144 marijuana users
was 7 or more times weekly for 52, 5 to 6 times weekly for 28, and 1 to 4
times weekly for 64. These groups reported using marijuana at their indicated frequencies for means of 6.2, 5.8, and 5.5 years, respectively. To
obtain a group of 72 nonusers for the final analyses who were comparable
to the marijuana users in sex distribution, fourth-grade Iowa Test scores,
and other characteristics, additional male nonusers were tested, and only a
subset of the female nonusers (n=l5) was chosen for inclusion. These
female nonusers were chosen so that the fourth-grade Iowa Test scores, age,
and education were matched for the users and nonusers. Choices were
made without reference to an individual’s scores on the 12th-grade Iowa
Tests. No marijuana users or male nonusers were excluded as part of the
matching process. After matching, there were no significant differences
between groups in fourth-grade Iowa Test scores (Vocabulary, Reading
Comprehension, Language Skills, Mathematics Skills, Work-Study Skills,
and Composite Score). The groups also showed no significant differences
with respect to sex, age, education, work status, annual income, Hollingshead Occupational Scale score, or race. Of the 12th-grade Iowa Tests,
2 subtests, Correctness and Appropriateness of Expression and Ability To
Do Quantitative Thinking, showed significant impairments in heavy marijuana users relative to nonusers. The other tests (Vocabulary, Ability To
Interpret Literary Materials, and Short Test of Educational Ability) did not
show impairments in heavy marijuana users. Less frequent marijuana use
did not produce impairments on any test. Thus, the most important findings
of the study are the impairments observed in verbal expression and mathematical skills following heavy marijuana use.
109
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Winer, B.J. Statistical Principles in Experimental Design. 2d ed. New
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
David A. Frisbie, Ph.D., Iowa Testing Programs, University of Iowa
processed requests for transcripts of fourth-grade scores on the Iowa Tests
of Basic Skills. Dr. Frisbie and others at Iowa Testing Programs, particularly Robert A. Forsyth, Ph.D., and A.N. Hieronymus, Ph.D., provided
advice concerning the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Ms. Stacy Siegel and Ms. Wendy Walters assisted
with the conduct of the research. James V. Himichs, Ph.D., Department of
Psychology, University of Iowa provided advice concerning the study. The
research was supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service grant
1 R01 DA 03988 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the first
author and by grant RR59 from the General Clinical Research Centers
Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health to
the Clinical Research Center, University of Iowa.
AUTHORS
Robert I. Block, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesia
Sara Famham, B.A.
Research Assistant
Department of Anesthesia
Kathleen Braverman, B.S., R.N.
Research Assistant
Department of Anesthesia
Russell Noyes, Jr., M.D.
Professor
Department of Psychiatry
M.M. Ghoneim, M.D.
Professor
Department of Anesthesia
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
111
Residual Effects of Alcohol
Peter E. Nathan
INTERACTIONS OF RESIDUAL EFFECTS WITH TOLERANCE
AND WITHDRAWAL PROCESSES
Tolerance
Alcohol intoxication refers to the varied behavioral, neurological, and psychological sequelae of alcohol ingestion. The average-sized individual
metabolizes between 7 and 10 grams of alcohol per hour, which corresponds to approximately 1 ounce of 90-proof spirits or 12 ounces of beer
(Becker 1979). As the amount of alcohol ingested exceeds metabolic
capacity, the level of alcohol in the blood increases. For the individual
who has not developed a high degree of tolerance to alcohol, i.e., the social
drinker, the degree of intoxication and the observed impairment correspond
roughly to measured blood alcohol level (BAL: milligrams of alcohol per
100 ml of blood, or mg percent).
After one or hvo drinks, the nontolerant individual experiences only minor
changes in coordination, behavior, or mood. However, as BAL increases
above 100 mg percent (approximately five drinks in 1 hour for a 160-pound
man), most social drinkers begin to demonstrate significant signs of intoxication, including impaired speech, ataxia, mood lability, impaired judgment,
and memory and attention deficits. At dosage levels exceeding 200 mg percent, these symptoms intensify. Marked dysarthria and ataxia are accompanied by extensive impairment of judgment, psychomotor skills, attention
and memory, and mood control. At dosage levels exceeding 300 mg of
alcohol per 100 ml of blood, the anesthetic action of alcohol predominates,
with the possibility of coma, respiratory failure, and death increasing
dramatically at BAI.s between 400 and 700 mg percent.
In most States in the United States, the legal limit of alcohol intoxication
for the operation of an automobile ranges between 80 and 100 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. These alcohol concentrations, however, do not
necessarily correlate with the actual level of impairment observed, especially
for heavy alcohol consumers who have developed a high degree of tolerance
112
for alcohol. The final level of intoxication and resultant impairment is a
function not only of BAL but also of the characteristics of the drinker
(Mendelson and Mello 1985), as well as the pattern of consumption, general
health and liver functioning, and presence of other drugs in the blood
(Noble 1984). Characteristics of the drinker that influence intoxication and
impairment include the drinker’s age, weight, prior experience with alcohol,
learned expectations concerning the effects of alcohol (Wilson et al. 1980),
and degree of acquired tolerance for alcohol (Lipscomb and Nathan 1980).
The diagnosis of alcohol intoxication is complicated when tolerance for
alcohol develops. Individuals who have developed a high degree of behavioral tolerance may not evidence the impairments or exhibit the overt signs
of intoxication observed in individuals who drink socially (Mello 1972).
Tolerant individuals have been found to perform quite well at BALs
between 200 and 300 mg percent in tasks requiring psychomotor skills and
good mentation (Mello and Mendelson 1978; Talland et al. 1964).
Laboratory studies of the metabolism of C14-labeled ethanol have indicated
that, although the chronic ingestion of alcohol results in an increased rate of
metabolism in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic subjects, the general rate of
metabolism does not differentiate the two groups (Mello 1972; Mendelson
1964; Mendelson et al. 1965). These data suggest that tolerance to alcohol
is related to adaptive processes in the central nervous system rather than to
alterations in the rate of metabolism of ethanol (Mendelson 1968).
Despite these findings, important questions concerning the extent to which
tolerance is retained by sober alcoholics remain. Though some have reported “savings” in the rate at which tolerance is reacquired after a period of
sobriety (Shapiro and Nathan 1986), the extent, nature, and prognostic significance of this residual phenomenon in sober alcoholics remains uncertain.
Relevant to this issue are data on the differential abilities of alcoholics and
nonalcoholics to estimate their own BALs. Alcoholics have been found
consistently to be less accurate than nonalcoholics in estimating their BALS
both prior to and following training in internal cue discrimination (Huber
et al. 1976; Lansky et al. 1978; Shapiro et al. 1980). Lipscomb and Nathan
(1980) hypothesized that heightened tolerance in alcoholics may account for
observed differences between alcoholics and nonalcoholics in the ability to
utilize internal cues of intoxication for a variety of purposes, including
moderation of drinking. To test this hypothesis, Lipscomb and Nathan
(1980) grouped nonalcoholic subjects according to differences in body sway
when intoxicated and when sober. Recognized as an extremely sensitive
measure of intoxication, body sway is also viewed as a reliable measure of
tolerance to ethanol (Moskowitz et al. 1974).
In the research by Lipscomb and Nathan, low-tolerance subjects evidenced
marked differences in body sway between sober and intoxicated states;
113
high-tolerance individuals showed little difference in body sway between
sober and intoxicated states. Following internal cue training, the lowtolerance subjects were found to be significantly more accurate than the
high-tolerance subjects in their blood-alcohol estimates, a finding suggesting
that increased tolerance may interfere with the utilization of internal intoxication cues.
If the residual effects of heavy alcohol use include the increased potential to
redevelop tolerance more quickly, these data suggest that these effects may
play a role in the heightened risk of heavy drinkers to go on to develop
frank abuse and dependence.
Withdrawal
Alcohol withdrawal delirium—delirium tremens—constitutes one of the most
serious residual effects of alcohol. The onset of this condition is usually
preceded by mild to moderate, essentially normal, withdrawal symptomatology. The more severe symptoms occur within 1 week after the cessation
or reduction of heavy drinking, and, a few days after normal withdrawal,
symptoms have dissipated. The syndrome is characterized by confusion,
disorientation, and a severe tremulous state. The course is variable, with
alternating periods of agitation and calm, punctuated by vivid hallucinations
and illusions and autonomic hyperactivity (fever, sweating, tachycardia, elevated blood pressure and respiration rates, and insomnia) (Victor 1976).
The disorder is usually of short duration, with 15 percent of patients in
remission after 24 hours and over 80 percent in remission in less than
3 days (Victor 1976; Victor and Adams 1953).
Although virtually all alcoholics experience at least some of the generally
benign symptoms of withdrawal, only 5 percent of alcoholics hospitalized
for major withdrawal experience alcohol withdrawal delirium (Victor and
Adams 1953), with an estimated incidence among alcoholics ranging from
1 percent to 15 percent (Gross et al. 1974). Peak incidence of the disorder
is between the ages of 30 and 50, with a decline in frequency after the age
of 60. Improvements in the effective hospital management of the syndrome
have resulted in a significant drop in mortality rates, with estimates ranging
between 5 percent and 50 percent (typically 15 percent) to less than 1 percent (Gross et al. 1974; Pattison 1985).
Gross and his colleagues (1974) found significant differences between
whites and blacks in the age of admission for symptoms of alcohol withdrawal delirium, with blacks on the average 8 years younger than whites.
These age differences may be related to cultural differences in quantity and
frequency of alcohol consumption (Cahalan 1977; Lex 1985). Men are at
higher risk to develop the disorder than women, probably because of both
the higher incidence of alcoholism in men and differences in drinking patterns between men and women (Tracey et al. 1976).
114
Data on recurrence rates of delirium tremens are in conflict. Feuerlein
(cited in Gross et al. 1974) has suggested that the recurrence rate is low
and decreases with subsequent episodes, while Gross and his colleagues
(1974) reported a readmission rate for the syndrome of 43 percent. The latter finding suggests a residual effect of chronic alcohol abuse. Exploration
of the mechanism responsible for this residual effect, if it does in fact exist,
might well prove helpful to a fuller understanding of the pathophysiology of
this important syndrome.
RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL
Amnestic Disorders
Korsakoff first described the unique amnestic syndrome, which would subsequently bear his name, in 1887. In its acute phase, the syndrome is characterized by mental confusion and disorientation to time, place, or person; in
its chronic stages, the confusional state subsides, and patients again become
alert-but typically apathetic and lacking in spontaneity or self-direction.
As indicated above, the memory function is severely disturbed: there is a
marked deterioration in short-term memory, coupled with varying degrees of
retrograde amnesia (Cermak 1987; Victor 1975). Confabulation is also frequently associated with Korsakoffs syndrome. However, the presence of
confabulation is not required for the diagnosis (Victor 1976). In addition,
these patients evidence deficits in a variety of conceptual and perceptual
functions (Butters and Granholm 1987).
The onset of Korsakoff's syndrome is frequently preceded by an acute episode of Wemicke’s disease, an encephalopathy characterized by ataxia,
ophthalmoplegia, nystagmus, and a global confused state (Victor et al.
1971).
The exact incidence of Korsakoffs syndrome is unknown, but estimates are
that between 1 percent and 3 percent of alcohol-related problems requiring
hospitalization can be traced to the disorder (Dreyfus 1974; Victor et al.
1971). In their classic study of 245 alcoholic patients, Victor and his colleagues (1971) reported age of onset for the disorder to be fairly evenly distributed among the ages of 30 to 70 years. A sex ratio of 1.7 males to
1 female was observed in this sample. However, these sex differences disappeared during the fifth and sixth decades of life.
The rate and extent of recovery from the symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome appear to be quite variable. Victor and colleagues (1971) reported
that complete recovery occurred in 21 percent of 104 cases, with remaining
patients showing significant but incomplete recovery (25 percent), slight
improvement (28 percent), or permanent disability (26 percent). Rate of
recovery also varied greatly. It ranged from 9 days to 1 year, with more
rapid and complete improvement in neurological signs typically following
115
the administration of adequate thiamine, but slower resolution of cognitivememory impairments (Donovan et al. 1987; Wilson 1987).
Korsakoffs syndrome and Wemicke’s disease have been viewed as two
clinically distinct aspects of the same disease entity, frequently termed the
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (Dreyfus 1974; Victor 1975). The etiology
of this collective syndrome has generally been thought to be a profound
deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine). A number of lines of evidence implicate the role of a nutritional deficit in the etiology of Korsakoff’s syndrome: (1) acute Wemicke’s disease, malnutrition, and chronic Korsakoffs
syndrome are consistently associated: 85 percent of Victor’s patients
presenting with Wemicke’s disease subsequently exhibited the symptoms of
Korsakoff’s syndrome; (2) some improvement in the syndrome follows the
administration of thiamine and vitamin therapy; (3) the lesions and other
pathological changes that occur in Korsakoff’s syndrome are essentially the
same as those characterizing diseases of known nutritional etiology, e.g.,
Wemicke’s disease (Victor et al. 1971).
Freund (1976) has noted, however, that much of the evidence for the nutritional hypothesis is based on correlational data and does not provide
unequivocal proof of a cause-and-effect relationship. Unlike Wemicke’s
disease, which has been observed in patients suffering severe nutritional
depletion unrelated to alcohol, Korsakoffs syndrome is extremely rare in
cases of vitamin deficiency in the absence of alcohol consumption (Freund
1976). In addition, the response of Korsakoff’s syndrome to thiamine therapy is slow and, in almost 80 percent of cases, incomplete (Victor et al.
1971). Further, the absence of controlled clinical trials makes it difficult to
determine whether the observed changes reflect a response to vitamin therapy or a spontaneous recovery over time. As well, the pathological changes
observed in Korsakoffs syndrome do not appear to be confined to brain
areas characteristic of Wemicke’s disease, e.g., the diencephalic areas
(Butters and Granholm 1987; Freund 1976).
Nonetheless, the balance of evidence implicates a role for nutritional factors
in the pathogenesis of Korsakoff’s syndrome (Victor 1975; Victor et al.
1971). It is well known that chronic alcohol ingestion may result in vitamin deprivation by the displacement of food in the diet. In addition, the
excessive intake of alcohol favors the development of a thiamine-deficient
state by adding carbohydrate calories, which increases the need for thiamine.
Finally, heavy alcohol ingestion impairs the ability of the gut to absorb thiamine and other nutrients (Victor 1975). But, regardless of the exact nature
of the alcohol-nutritional interaction in this syndrome, effective treatment
requires early identification to prevent the establishment of the irreversible
memory deficits that characterize alcohol amnestic disorder (Cermak 1987).
This disorder is a particularly catastrophic consequence of chronic alcoholism for some. What remains unknown, however, is what inclines some
116
chronic alcoholics to develop the disorder and protects others, including
those suffering from marked thiamine deficiency, from it. We also do not
know whether lengthy periods of sobriety, in the midst of a lifetime of
alcohol abuse, protects against or perhaps even sensitizes to the development
of Korsakoff's syndrome. Both unanswered questions demand answers.
Dementia
Sometimes, persons with a history of chronic alcohol consumption develop
dementia and consequent intellectual impairment. The differential diagnosis
of dementia associated with alcoholism requires a history of prolonged and
heavy alcohol use, persistence of dementia for at least 3 weeks after drinking ceases, and the exclusion, by appropriate means, of all other causes of
dementia besides chronic alcohol consumption (Oscar-Berman 1987).
This condition must be differentiated from mild, alcohol-dependence-related
cognitive deficits revealed only by neuropsychological evaluation (these conditions are discussed later in this chapter). Persons given the diagnosis of
dementia associated with alcoholism, by contrast, must demonstrate at least
some impairment in social or occupational functioning. The dementia can
vary in severity from mild impairment in functioning to impairment in general functioning so severe that custodial care is required. Characteristic features of dementia include deterioration in previous intellectual abilities,
short- and long-term memory deficits, and impairment in abstract thinking,
judgment, and impulse control of sufficient magnitude to interfere significantly with work, usual social activities, or relationships with others.
Alcohol abuse likely plays both a direct and an indirect role in the etiology
of this disorder (Victor et al. 1971). Alcohol contributes directly to the
pathogenesis of the disorder through its toxic effects on the brain and indirectly by its interaction with vitamin deficiency, other alcohol-related
diseases, and alcohol-related accidents causing damage to the brain (Freund
1976; Risberg and Berglund 1987).
Although the exact incidence of the disorder is unknown, it has been estimated that between 15 percent and 30 percent of nursing-home patients with
organic brain syndrome are alcoholics whose alcohol-related organicity has
become permanent (Schuckit 1979).
Changes in Social Interaction
Patterns of social interaction associated with alcohol consumption were a
prime focus of the empirical laboratory studies of alcoholic drinking that my
colleagues and I undertook at Boston City Hospital and Rutgers University.
The initial impetus for this research came from data on the behavioral
effects of chronic drinking reported by Mendelson and Mello in 1966.
Their male chronic alcoholic subjects’ social behavior seemed to vary
117
according to three factors: the amount of alcohol they had consumed, the
nature of their drinking and living environments, and the history of their
alcohol abuse. To undertake a detailed experimental analysis of these variables, my coworkers and I planned an around-the-clock comparative examination of the operant-choice behavior of groups of alcoholic and nonalcoholic males, during periods of social interaction and social isolation, crossed
with periods of drinking and abstinence.
Our alcoholic subjects, most of them drawn from Boston’s skid row,
expended almost all of the points they earned for operant work to purchase
alcohol, not to relieve social isolation (Nathan et al. 1970). Moreover,
these men usually chase to remain isolated during nondrinking periods as
well, especially toward the end of the 3-week drinking period.
O’Brien and I (Nathan and O’Brien 1971; Nathan et al. 1971) then directly
compared the social behavior of alcoholic men with that of matched nonalcoholics. The nonalcoholic men turned out to be much more social than
the alcoholic men; they spent many more reinforcement points for socialization before, during, and after periods of drinking than had their alcoholic
peers. In a complementary study of women, Tracey et al. (1976) reported
that female alcoholics in a similar operant-choice situation were more prosocial than the chronic alcoholic men who had been studied earlier.
Studying the drinking and social behavior of alcoholics who seemed largely
comparable to the subjects my colleagues and I had investigated, Bigelow
(1973) and Griffiths and colleagues (1975) reported most of their male
chronically alcoholic subjects to be significantly more sociable on drinking
days than on days when they could not drink. Additional support for the
view that not all chronic alcoholics are social isolates when they are
drinking-that, in fact, alcohol serves very often to increase their social
interaction--came from a study by Thornton and colleagues (1975) in which
alcohol dramatically increased social interaction among groups of alcoholics.
It may be, then, contrary to my own early findings, that chronic alcoholics
may actually become more rather than less isolated interpersonally when
they drink. Among the apparent factors influencing alcohol’s effect on
interpersonal behavior are the likelihood that being with others during drinking periods threatens the continued availability of alcohol (skid-row alcoholics cannot afford to share), whether the person has good social skills to
begin with (many skid-row alcoholics are social isolates, drunk or sober),
and whether social skills were reinforced in the past (middle-class alcoholics
are more likely to value social skills).
Unlike some of the other behaviors that follow alcohol ingestion, the effect
of alcohol-related expectancies on social interaction has not been examined
intensively. Indirect explorations contrasting drug and expectancy effects on
social anxiety, however, indicate that expectancy does play an important
118
role in determining alcohol’s effect on social anxiety (Lipscomb et al. 1980;
Wilson and Abrams 1977; Wilson et al. 1980). These findings suggest that
believing that alcohol relaxes, facilitates communication, and enhances selfesteem is important to alcohol’s role as a social facilitator.
Changes in Cognitive Processes
Chronic alcohol abuse causes deficits in cognitive functioning. In some
instances, these deficits are severe and disabling enough to meet the diagnostic criteria for dementia associated with alcoholism. In others, especially
when accompanied by nutritional deficiency, profound cognitive deficits may
signal Korsakoff's syndrome. Most of the time, though, the deficits in cognitive functioning that accompany chronic alcohol abuse are not severe
enough in and of themselves to justify a separate diagnosis. Instead, for the
most part, these deficits are simply seen as correlates or consequences of a
long period of (generally) abusive drinking.
The well-known deficits associated with alcohol intoxication include balance,
coordination, judgment, and cognitive-perceptual impairments (Jones and
Vega 1971; Jones and Parsons 1975). Less well known is that, although
the social drinker returns to intact cognitive-perceptual functioning shortly
after all alcohol has cleared from the body, the alcoholic or problem drinker
who attains sobriety does not return to normal cognitive functioning for a
longer period of time, depending on such factors as age (Goldman 1982),
alcohol consumption pattern (Sanchez-Craig 1980), and quantity and frequency (Eckhardt et al. 1978). Typical deficits associated with chronic
alcohol abuse affect problem solving, nonverbal abstracting, and perceptualspatial motor performance. Memory and new learning skills may also be
depressed. Finally, although general verbal intelligence often shows no
impairment, linguistic skills of a more demanding nature may be impaired
in chronic alcoholics (Parsons 1987).
An interesting recent series of studies (reviewed by Goldman 1987) revealed
that the most important determinant of recovery from the cognitive deficits
associated with prolonged drinking may be age. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics under the age of 40 generally recover from virtually all cognitive
deficits by 2 to 3 weeks after drinking has ceased, regardless of drinking
history. Alcoholics over 40, by contrast, take much longer to recover functioning and, even after 3 months or more without a drink, may show residual deficits in visual-perceptual functioning. These findings suggest that
certain of the deteriorative processes associated with aging interfere with the
recovery of the cognitive functioning that takes place in younger individuals,
regardless of the quantity of alcohol consumed.
It is interesting to speculate on the role of age in other residual effects of
chronic alcohol abuse. Do the possible residual effects of chronic alcohol
abuse on tolerance and withdrawal, possibly even susceptibility to delirium
119
tremens, vary as a function of age? Do older alcohol abusers maintain
residual effects that younger ones lose? The role of age raises most
interesting questions, which should certainly be explored.
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AUTHOR
Peter E. Nathan, Ph.D.
Center of Alcohol Studies
Rutgers-The State University of
New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
123
Hepatic, Nutritional, and Genetic
Influences on Cognitive Process
in Alcoholics
Ralph E. Tarter, Howard Moss, Amelia Arria, and
David Van Thiel
INTRODUCTION
Cognitive science is the study of conscious experience. It encompasses the
study of phenomena ranging from introspection to the mechanisms underlying sensory information processing.
Neuropsychology is concerned with relating cognitive process to brain
organization. When injury to the brain occurs, as, for example, following
chronic use of drugs, it is important to ascertain how the central nervous
system (CNS) pathology affects the structure and operations of cognition.
This information may help better to understand and predict the behavior of
the person.
This discussion addresses three questions. (1) Does chronic substance abuse
disrupt cognitive capacities? (2) What are the potential mechanisms of
action by which drug abuse compromises CNS integrity? (3) Are individuals who are at high risk for substance abuse differentiable from the rest of
the population with respect to cognitive capacities?
EFFECTS OF CHRONIC SUBSTANCE ABUSE ON COGNITION
Alcohol and substance abuse rank among the three most prevalent psychiatric disorders (Myers et al. 1984). Comparatively little is known, however,
regarding the long-term neurobehavioral consequences of chronic drug use.
Sampling and methodologic problems are major mitigating factors in conducting research in this complex problem area. For example, inhalant
abusers, benzodiazepene abusers, and opiate abusers comprise somewhat distinct populations with respect to socioeconomic status, gender, and race.
Hence, generalization with respect to comparative neurotoxicity is difficult
124
because individuals who select a particular drug are not representative of the
population at large. Furthermore, pattern of drug use and underlying motivation for drug use are not the same for all members within a population
using a certain drug. The occasional recreational drug user is quite different from the person who uses drugs for self-medication or the person who
is physically addicted with respect to the acute and cumulative effects of
the substance on the brain. Also, individuals who use one drug preferentially are inclined to use other drugs occasionally, and, not infrequently,
consume two or more drugs conjointly. This behavior, which is generally
referred to as polydrug abuse, makes it difficult to ascertain the neurobehavioral effects of specific drugs in humans.
The acute and chronic effects of drug interaction on cognition are entirely
unknown, hence it is not readily feasible to determine a specific drug effect
on neuropsychological test performance. Thus, although the available evidence implicates the presence of neurobehavioral deficits for users of alcohol, inhalants, benzodiazepenes, as well as certain other drugs having abuse
liability (Tarter and Edwards 1987), it is not possible to relate unequivocally
the neuropsychological sequelae to the effect of the particular drug. To
date, data have not been presented relating such fundamental variables as
frequency, patterns, and quantity of drug use to level of neuropsychologic
test performance.
The research conducted to date has been almost entirely desaiptive. The
findings suggest that the prolonged consumption of certain types of drugs is
associated with decrements in neuropsychologic test performance. However,
the paucity of studies published in which the above-noted factors are controlled mitigates against any general conclusions regarding the mechanisms
underlying the chronic and lasting effects of drugs on cognition. Nonetheless, the available evidence indicates that not all drugs having abuse liability
cause neuropsychologic impairment. For example, there is no convincing
evidence that heroin and marijuana abusers perform deficiently on neuropsychological tests (Parsons and Farr 1981). Where disturbances are
observed, they are reflected by cognitive deficits in both capacity and efficiency and are manifest on tests of attention, memory, visual-motor, and
abstracting processes. The extent to which the structure of cognition in
terms of the representational systems or schemata are disrupted has not been
investigated. From the perspective of neuropsychology, it is not inconceivable that the brain can become pathological to the extent that representational systems are impaired. For example, pervasive cortical atrophy and
ventricular dilation have been described in chronic alcoholics (Ron 1983).
Such profound structural change can be expected to impair brain functioning
such that sensory input cannot be transduced and coded into the representational systems comprising cognition. As yet, no research has been conducted relating the effects of drug abuse to cognitive schemata and brain
integrity using neuropsychologic tests.
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The empirical evidence accrued regarding the effects of abused drugs on the
brain has focused on processes of cognition rather than on the representational structures of cognitive schemata. By far, the drug most studied has
been alcohol. With respect to the cognitive consequences of alcoholism,
substantial evidence indicates that detoxified alcoholics (sober for up to
1 month) exhibit deficits on tasks measuring abstracting, memory, and
visual-spatial capacities (Tarter and Edwards 1985). These deficits were
found in up to 75 percent of alcoholics drawn from clinical populations.
However, cognitive deficits tend to be absent when neuromedical history is
normal (Grant et al. 1984). The severity of cognitive deficits, when present, is modest compared to that observed in persons with acute neurologic
injury, and these deficits can be grouped into two broad syndromes
(Wilkinson and Carlen 1980). One syndrome presents as an amnesic disorder that in its most severe manifestations qualifies for a WernickeKorsakoff diagnosis. The second syndrome presents as a somewhat benign
dementia. These two neuropsychologic sequelae are not mutually exclusive
inasmuch as there. are overlapping features with respect to manifest cognitive impairment. Investigations have not yet been conducted to delineate
different neuropsychologic syndromes concomitant to drug abuse.
Although a substantial literature has emerged describing the type, severity,
and reversibility of neuropsychologic deficits in alcoholics, remarkably little
research has tried to identify the biological mechanisms that may be etiologically significant. The neurotoxicity of alcohol is well established.
Additionally, chronic alcohol excess is associated with a disruption of multiple biological systems, which, besides the direct neurotoxic effect of alcohol, can induce CNS injury. Research conducted in our laboratory indicates
that liver disease and vitamin-E-absorption disorder may contribute significantly to the cognitive deficits observed in alcoholics. The following brief
discussion examines these two mechanisms potentially underlying the etiology of neurologic pathology concomitant to alcohol abuse.
MECHANISMS UNDERLYING CNS INJURY
Liver Disease
Hepatic injury and dysfunction are common sequelae of chronic alcohol
abuse. Up to 30 percent of alcoholics develop cirrhosis, which, independently of alcohol consumption, is associated with a chronic hepatic encephalopathy (Rehnstrom et al. 1977). This liver-disease-induced neuropsychiatric
disorder is commonly believed to be the consequence of the liver’s failure
to catabolize circulating neurotoxins, particularly nitrogenous substances
(Duffy and Plum 1982). Hepatic encephalopathy caused by conditions other
than alcoholism is commonly associated with the same types of neuropsychologic deficits as is commonly found in alcoholics (Tarter et al. 1988).
As table 1 illustrates, when alcoholics and nonalcoholics are compared, both
groups having biopsy-confirmed cirrhosis, they perform very similarly on
126
most neuropsychologic tests. On tests that measure short-term memory, eye
tracking, and eye-finger coordination, the alcoholics do, however, perform
more poorly, indicating that not all of the CNS disturbance can be ascribed
to the effects of hepatic encephalopathy. The causes of these latter deficits
are not possible to discern; they may reflect the additional toxic impact of
alcohol on the brain or be the consequence of medical and biological factots other than liver disease that are common in alcoholics.
TABLE 1. Neuropsychologic test results
Test
Token Test
Rey Figure Copy
Rey Figure Delay
Trailmaking A
Trailmaking B
Block Design
Stroop—Color
Stroop—Word
Stroop—Interference
Animal Naming
Symbol Digit
Digit Span Forward
Digit Span Backward
Digit Supraspan
Benton Visual Retention Test
Brown Peterson Memory Test
Finger Tapping—Dominant
Finger Tapping—Nondominant
Grooved Pegboard-Dominant
Grooved Pegboard—
Nondominant
Pursuit Rotor—Dominant
Pursuit Rotor—Nondominant
Static Ataxia—Eyes Open
Lateral
Static Ataxia—Eyes Open
Front-Back
Control
Nonalcoholic
Cirrhotic
1253
35.84
50.92
28.91
60.46
36.51
12.93
8.68
18.46
24.48
53.52
7.27
4.44
2.90
8.21
41.98
50.92
47.21
68.96
77.16
11.53
35.01
49.36
34.61
81.84
34.70
15.92
9.32
30.20
20.33
40.94
6.24
4.63
1.83
6.85
37.31
49.36
44.73
84.79
94.42
11.55
35.39
48.42
43.31
112.22
31.07
16.52
10.53
30.93
22.35
39.11
6.38
4.29
2.59
6.87
33.04
48.42
44.53
95.59
111.28
1.3
2.5
0.0
3.9*
6.6*
1.6
1.7
2.6
5.5*
1.9
10.9*
3.5*
0.4
2.2
4.2*
3.6*
0.4
1.1
4.0’
2.8
16.98
16.16
4.65
14.82
14.10
3.28
13.19
13.52
3.15
2.9
1.3
0.8
9.59
10.02
11.60
0.5
127
Alcoholic
Cirrhotic F
TABLE 1. (Continued)
Control
Test
Static Ataxia—Eyes Closed
Lateral
Static Ataxia—Eyes Closed
Front-Back
Nonalcoholic Alcoholic
Cirrhotic
Cirrhotic F
6.59
4.67
8.56
0.6
14.90
23.50
20.72
1.8
*p<.05
NOTE:
Data are group means, adjusted for age and education level. F values represent main effects.
The demonstration that liver disease in alcoholics may underlie certain of
the cognitive deficits has important ramifications. First, it suggests that
effective medical management of the liver disease may ameliorate the cognitive deficits. Preliminary data employing pharmacologic (Conn and Lieberthal 1978) and surgical (Tarter et al. 1988) procedures support this
possibility. Second, because the liver subserves a number of essential
biological functions (nutrition, immune regulation, detoxification, manufacture of plasma proteins), it may be that specific aspects of hepatic disturbance contribute to particular types of cognitive impairment. The biochemical variables listed in table 2, upon factor analysis, reduced into three
categories of liver processes: liver injury, liver dysfunction, and protein
synthesis in the liver. As can be seen in the table, various aspects of liver
disease are differentially associated with different types of cognitive
processes.
In summary, emerging evidence links hepatic disease to neuropsychologic
impairment in alcoholics (Tarter et al. 1986). The extent to which recovery
of cognitive capacity, often seen in alcoholics, is the product of a corresponding improvement in liver status concomitant to sobriety is unknown.
Also, it is unclear whether liver disease consequential to other types of drug
use, either directly from the drug or indirectly by disease resulting from
intravenous self-administration, e.g., hepatitis, underlies the CNS pathology.
The investigations conducted on alcoholics suggest that how liver disease
affects brain functioning may be an important topic for research concerned
with documenting the residual effects of other types of substance abuse on
cognitive capacity.
Nutrition
The water soluble B-complex vitamins are integral to maintaining normal
mental functioning. Chronic and severe intake deficiencies in these vitamins
are associated with an organic brain syndrome (Roe 1979). The best known
of these is a thiamine deficiency, which, in a subset of alcoholics, results in
TABLE 2. Linear multiple regression analysis of hepatic injury variable-s
and neuropsychologic test variables adjusted for age
Biochemical
Variables*
Neuropsychologic Test
r
Percent of
Variance
Predicted p<
Block Design
(1) globulin
(2) prothrombin time
(3) ICG clearance
.37
13.8
.05
Trailmaking Test A
(1) albumin
(2) prothrombin time
(3) ICG clearance
.37
12.8
.05
Trailmaking Test B
(1) prothrombin time
.27
7.0
.05
Symbol Digit Modalities
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
albumin
prothrombin time
globulin
ICG clearance
ammonia
.47
21.9
.0l
Animal Naming
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
albumin
prothrombin time
ammonia
globulin
ICG clearance
.55
29.8
.00l
Digit Span Forward
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
ICG clearance
albumin
globulin
prothrombin time
.39
15.0
.05
Digit Span Backward
(1) albumin
(2) globulin
(3) ammonia
.38
14.2
.05
Supra Span
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
albumin
prothrombin time
ammonia
ICG clearance
globulin
.47
21.8
.0l
Tokens Test
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
prothrombin time
albumin
ammonia
ICG clearance
.40
15.6
.05
*Numbers in parentheses indicate order of variable entry in regression equation.
129
an acute encephalopathy. This is often referred to as Wemicke’s syndrome.
In its chronic state, the Wemicke Korsakoff syndrome is the most profound
neurologic sequela of alcoholism. Other B-complex vitamin deficiencies
have also been shown to induce or exacerbate an organic brain syndrome.
The effects of a fat-soluble vitamin deficiency has been the subject of
research in our laboratory (Arria et al., in press). In one study, we found
that 52 percent of alcoholics met criteria for a vitamin E deficiency. This
may be important for elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying the cognitive deficits in alcoholics. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and, as such, functions to protect membrane phospholipids from peroxidation by free radicals.
The absence of the protective function of vitamin E in alcoholics may catalyze membrane destruction. It is noteworthy that alcohol administration to
animals results in increased membrane permeability; thus one potential
mechanism for CNS injury may relate to cell membrane injury or destruction consequential to a vitamin-E-absorption disorder.
Table 3 summarizes the findings from a recently completed study in our
laboratory on a nonalcoholic sample. The findings demonstrate the potential
importance of vitamin E on psychomotor capacity.
In summary, the residual cognitive deficits associated with chronic alcohol
or drug abuse may be due in part to disturbed nutritional intake or absorption. Inadequate intake of essential nutrients may be intrinsic to the lifestyle of the destitute drug addict; this inadequacy, added to the drug’s
effects on the brain, exacerbates the cognitive impairment. In addition, a
disruption of biological systems regulating absorption of essential nutrients
may contribute to the CNS pathology. Thus, drug abuse may be associated
with persisting cognitive impairment owing to the combined influences of
direct action on the brain, indirect effects of drug use (lifestyle), or
disruption of organ-system integrity (liver, pancreas, heart), and infection.
COGNITIVE DEFICIT PRESAGING SUBSTANCE ABUSE
children of alcoholics and children of drug abusers may manifest neurodevelopmental and cognitive deficits concomitant to either drug teratogenicity or genetic predisposition. Evidence presented in the past several
years suggests that children of alcoholics exhibit cognitive impairments
compared to children of nonalcoholics (Tarter et al., in press). Deficits
have also been reported even when the children of alcoholics were raised
away from their biological alcoholic parents. To date, no circumscribed
cognitive syndrome has been delineated, although from the studies published, it appears that children of alcoholics may be deficient on tasks
measuring planning, verbal memory, and abstracting (Tarter et al. 1989). It
should be emphasized, however, that the results are preliminary and the
presence, type, and severity of cognitive impairment observed are not consistent across all investigations.
130
TABLE 3. Performance scores on neuropsychologic rests for normal
healthy controls, primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients
with vitamin E deficiency, and PBC patients without
vitamin E deficiency
Neuropsychologic Test
PBC
Vitamin E
Deficient
Healthy
Controls
PBC
Vitamin E
Sufficient
Visual-Motor Efficiency
Trailmaking A
Trailmaking B
Symbol Digit
36.22±9.4*
98.0±31.8*
39.16±10.1*
26.87±6.7
57.00±10.3
55.60±7.2
34.71±11.0
77.14±32.5
44.07±6.0
82.94±13.9
84.50±11.2
84.29±8.8
Fine Motor Coordination
Grooved Pegboard
Dominant Hand
Nondominant Hand
79.05±10.1*
87.95±21.7*
61.80±8.3
65.43±7.3
76.67±22.1
85.00±22.6*
(t=2.87)
Eye-Hand Coordination
Pursuit Rotor
Dominant Hand
Nondominant Hand
12.64±2.9*
1246±3.5
15.9±2.8
15.37±3.1
13.43±4.9
12.99±5.4
Simple Motor Speed
Finger Tapping
(right and left hands)
*p<.01, significantly different from normals.
NOTE
Data represent means ± standard deviation.
The above findings, albeit tentative, implicate a disruption of CNS integrity
in children predisposed to alcoholism. Indeed, approximately 25 percent of
children of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves (Goodwin 1979). Similarly, a familial and possibly genetic basis for substance abuse has been
documented, suggesting that there may also be cognitive deficits in children
predisposed to drug abuse. One important research question concerns
whether having a cognitive deficit significantly and directly contributes to
the risk for developing a substance abuse disorder. Table 4 summarizes the
key findings from our most recent study contrasting community-dwelling
children of alcoholic (chosen solely on previous alcohol history) and
nonalcoholic men. It can be seen that verbal intellectual capacity,
achievement level on standardized tests of educational attainment, and
certain aspects of short-term memory are deficient in male offspring of
alcoholic fathers. It remains for future research to determine the relative
131
genetic and environmental contributions to these deficits and to ascertain
how the manifest impairments affect outcome in adulthood.
TABLE 4. Sons of alcoholics and nonalcoholics
Alcoholic
Offspring
(Mean)
Normal Men
Offspring
(Mean)
F
p<
14.29
14.33
1.19
—
7.76
8.07
1.33
—
102.31
103.88
102.06
94.56
106.56
102.19
116.70
112.93
115.11
108.44
113.96
116.78
14.14
4.63
6.73
13.83
2.022
12.4
.001
.05
.0l
.001
.001
Dichotic Listening
Right Ear
Left Ear
29.63
29.13
31.67
30.04
1.91
0.11
—
—
Symbol Digit Paired Association
Learning
Number Correct
Number Correct (delay)
22.25
5.94
23.37
6.37
1.14
0.77
—
—
Peterson Memory Test
5 Seconds Interpolation
15 Seconds Interpolation
30 Seconds Interpolation
Total Recall
14.06
10.31
9.88
34.25
16.07
13.56
13.93
43.56
1.97
5.93
7.48
7.83
.05
.01
.01
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
Standard Score
103.56
119.30
8.29
.01
Age
Grade
Peabody Individual Achievement
Test
Mathematics
Reading Recognition
Reading Comprehension
Spelling
General Information
Total
DISCUSSION
As society becomes increasingly complex and dependent on technologic
sophistication, it is likely that even subtle cognitive impairment will have
pronounced adverse effects on the individual’s potential for adjustment. The
132
longstanding effects of drugs on the brain pose a major societal problem in
light of current prevalence of drug use. The extent of permanent residual
cognitive sequelae has not been researched, although, based on studies of
alcoholics and polydrug abusers, it would appear that drug users are at
heightened risk of suffering CNS injury both from the substance abused and
from a lifestyle typified by deprivation, neglect of personal well-being, and
traumatic injury. To date, answers to certain important questions are
unavailable. For example: Which drugs have lasting neurotoxic effects?
Which drugs produce CNS injury indirectly by impairing function of other
organ systems? Does cessation of drug use early in life have a delayed
effect on CNS functioning in later life? Does a cognitive deficit from drug
use affect treatment prognosis? Are differential cognitive profiles associated
with different types of drugs? How does cognitive deficit consequential to
drug use relate to behavioral change and psychopathology? These pressing
questions have practical implications for the treatment of substance abusers.
CONCLUSION
The available limited evidence suggests that alcoholism and certain types of
drug abuse are associated with cognitive deficits. The deficits, although not
severe in most cases, are nonetheless significant insofar as safety to self and
others may be concerned. Subtle impairment in psychomotor speed and
coordination may, for example, place the person at great risk when operating power machinery or performing a dangerous job. For this reason, an
important area for future research would be to devise precise assessment
methods to detect subtle CNS disturbance. Neuropsychologic tests using the
precise measurement afforded by microcomputers may thus be useful for
determining whether an individual is fit to perform a certain task. Such
testing may provide a noninvasive method of accruing information about
acute and chronic drug effects on functional capacity, which has direct
ramifications for the safety and health of the individual.
REFERENCES
Arria, A.; Tarter, R.; Warty, V.; and Van Thiel, D. Vitamin E deficiency
and psychomotor dysfunction in adults with primary biliary cirrhosis. Am
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Conn, H., and Lieberthal, M. The Hepatic Coma Syndrome and Lachtulose.
Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1978.
Duffy, T., and Plum, F. Hepatic encephalopathy. In: Arias, L.; Popper,
H.; Schacter, D.; and Shafritz, D., eds. The Liver: Biology and Pathobiology. New York: Raven Press, 1982. pp. 693-715.
Goodwin, D. Alcoholism and heredity. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36:57-61,
1979.
Grant, J.; Adams, K.; and Reed, R. Aging, abstinence, and medical risk
factors in the prediction of neuropsychologic deficit among long-term
alcoholics. Arch Gen Psychiatry 41:710-718, 1984.
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Myers, J.; Weisman, M.; and Tischler, G. Six month prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three communities. Arch Gen Psychiatry 41:959-967,
1984.
Parsons, O., and Farr, S. The neuropsychology of alcohol and drug abuse.
In: Filskov, S., and Boll, T., eds. Handbook of Clinical Neuropsychology. New York: Wiley, 1981. pp. 320-365.
Rehnstrom, S.; Simert, G.; Hanson, G.; and Vong, J. Chronic hepatic
encephalopathy. A psychometrical study. Scand J Gastroenterol 12:305311, 1977.
Roe, D. Alcohol and the Diet. Westport, CT: AVI Publishing Co., 1979.
Ron, M. The alcoholic brain: CT scan and psychological findings.
Psycho1 Med (Suppl 3); 1983.
Tarter, R., and Edwards, K. Neuropsychology of alcoholism. In: Tarter,
R., and Van Thiel, D., eds. Alcohol and the Brain: Chronic Effects.
New York: Plenum Press, 1985.
Tarter, R., and Edwards, K. Brief and comprehensive neuropsychological
assessment of alcoholism and drug abuse. In: Hartlage, L.; Asken, M.;
and Hornsby, L., eds. Essentials of Neuropsychological Assessmenl.
New York: Springer, 1987. pp. 138-162.
Tarter, R.; Edwards, K.; and Van Thiel, D. Hepatic encephalopathy. In:
Goldstein, G., and Tarter, R., eds. Advances in Clinical Neuropsychology.
Vol. 3. New York: Plenum Press, 1986. pp. 243-264.
Tarter, R.; Erb, S.; Biller, P.; Switala, J.; and Van Thiel, D. The quality of
life following liver transplantation. A preliminary report. Gastroenterol
Clin North Am 17:207-217, 1988.
Tarter, R.; Jacob, T.; and Bremer, D. Cognitive status of sons of alcoholic
men. Alcohol: Clin Exp Res 13:232-235, 1989.
Tarter, R.; Moss, H.; and Laird, S. Neuropsychological and neurophysiological characteristics of children of alcoholics. In: Windle, M., and
Searles, J., eds. Children of Alcoholics: A Critical Review of the Literature. New York: Guilford, in press.
Tarter, R.; Van Thiel, D.; and Moss, H. Impact of cirrhosis on the neuropsychologic test performance of alcoholics. Alcohol: Clin Exp Res
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Supported by U.S. Public Health Service grants AA 06936, AA 06601, and
1 P50 DA 0560555.
134
AUTHORS
Ralph E. Tarter, Ph.D.
Howard Moss, M.D.
Amelia Arria, B.S.
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh Medical School
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
David H. Van Thiel, M.D.
Department of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh Medical School
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
135
Learning and Memory Deficits in
Detoxified Alcoholics
Marlene Oscar-Berman
INTRODUCTION
To begin on common ground, this chapter will define three terms that will
be used frequently: “learning,” “memory,” and “detoxified alcoholics.”
Next, it will relate the concepts of “learning” and “memory” to areas of
brain damage associated with alcohol abuse in detoxified alcoholics.
Similarities between alcoholics and chronologically older nonalcoholic
subjects will be noted, both in terms of neuroanatomical and functional
changes; special attention will be paid to the role of the right hemisphere.
Finally, this chapter will review findings that suggest that learning deficits
may be related to perceptual deficits, which, in turn, may be related to
neocortical damage, and that memory deficits, especially those dependent
upon short-term storage capacity, may be related to damage below the level
of the cortex.
DEFINITIONS OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
The term “learning” usually refers to the processes by which new information is acquired, while “memory” usually refers to the storage of new and
old information for later use (Corsini 1987). Learning is dependent upon
sensory input; it is usually an incremental process that involves practice,
and it usually requires some form of reinforcement. Learning theorists do
not always agree on a definition of learning, although most do agree that it
can be measured operationally in terms of changes in behavior over time
(Bower and Hilgard 1981). Common operational measures of learning are
decreases in errors with practice over time, and decreases in amount of time
taken to perform a specific task.
Memory, in turn, can be dependent upon learning; memories can be stored
for very short periods of time—seconds or even milliseconds, during which
information is encoded and consolidated—or for long periods of time
weeks, years, or a lifetime (Bugelski 1987; Tulving 1985). Conceptually,
136
there is a thin line between learning and memory, and a thin line between
different stages or forms of memory. For example, it’s hard to specify
where short-term memory ends and long-term memory begins.
Table 1 represents one way of looking at human memory, which emphasizes temporal characteristics of the information being processed. Table 1 is
intended to be descriptive only and, therefore, relatively atheoretical.
TABLE 1. Forms of human memory
Sensory
Memory
Immediate
Memory
Short-Term
Memory
Long-Term
Memory
Terms Used
Iconic/
Acoustic
storage
Primary
memory
Secondary
memory
Tertiary
memory
Durations
Fractions
of a
second
up to
about
45 seconds
Minutes
to years
May be
permanent
Examples
Subliminal
perception
Digit
span
A new
song
Your
name
Most of the early learning and memory research in alcoholism centered
around the middle two aspects of memory listed in table 1, that is, primary
and secondary memories, having temporal durations, respectively, of anywhere from several seconds to several years (Talland 1965; Victor et al.
1971). More recently, research on disorders of learning and memory have
emphasized qualitative aspects of the information being acquired and stored
(Mishkin and Applinzeller 1987; Squire and Butters 1984; Tulving 1985).
DETOXIFIED ALCOHOLICS
The term “detoxified alcoholic” has a specific meaning in the majority of
studies to be reviewed in this chapter. Only male subjects have been
employed in the research projects. The study of females brings in a host of
variables that are beyond the scope of the present discussion, e.g., brain
asymmetries are noted to be different in the two genders (Geschwind and
Galaburda 1984). In the studies conducted in our laboratories, the alcoholic
research participants consisted of men over age 20 who had used alcohol in
excessive quantities, generally for at least 7 years, and whose drinking
problems had been severe enough to meet criteria for alcohol abuse and
alcohol dependence according to currently recognized diagnostic criteria
137
such as those of the DSM III (American Psychiatric Association 1980) and
DSM III-R (American Psychiatric Association 1987). To be enrolled in our
studies, alcoholics were required to be dry for at least 4 weeks before
testing and to have no history of significant head injury, seizure disorder,
stroke, or other serious neurological disease; no significant diabetes, heart
disease, or other underlying medical illness; no serious psychiatric disturbance or ongoing psychological disability such as depression; no chronic
polydrug abuse; and no current use of psychotropic medications. A fuller
description of the research project and additional references can be found in
Ellis and Oscar-Berman (1989).
We have also been interested in studying cognitive changes in detoxified
alcoholics who have developed Korsakoff's syndrome, characterized most
dramatically by severe anterograde amnesia or loss of short-term memory
(Oscar-Berman 1980; Talland 1965). The exclusion criteria for our
Korsakoff patients were essentially the same as those for non-Korsakoff
alcoholics, and both alcoholic groups were equated as much as possible for
education and verbal IQ scores. However, whereas the non-Korsakoff alcoholics had clinically normal memory ability (as measured by memory quotients derived from the Wechsler Memory Scale, generally being between 90
and 130), the memory quotients of the Korsakoff patients, by definition,
were abnormally low (usually falling between 60 and 100). That is, one
important requirement for a subject’s inclusion as a Korsakoff patient in our
laboratory, as well as in other laboratories, was that the patient’s memory
quotient be at least 20 points below his verbal IQ score (Squire and Butters
1984). Likewise, an important requirement for inclusion as a non-Korsakoff
alcoholic was that the memory quotient be no more than 15 points below
the verbal IQ score. A dichotomous, nonoverlapping requirement permitted
us to describe group similarities-as well as group differences-with
confidence.
AREAS OF BRAIN DAMAGE ASSOCIATED WITH ALCOHOL
ABUSE
Although not all researchers agree, it can be stated that any brain damage
that may be associated with long-term chronic alcohol abuse is fairly diffuse
and involves the cerebral cortex (Lishman 1981; Wilkinson and Carlen
1982). Wilkinson and Carlen (1982) compared computerized tomography
(CT) scans of non-Korsakoff alcoholics to those of neurological controls
across five age decades. A striking characteristic of the brains of the alcoholics was abnormal ventricular enlargement at the level of the caudate, as
well as sulcal widening in the cerebral cortex. Of special interest was the
fact that the ventricles and sulci became increasingly wider with increasing
age. In the 1950s, Courville described this feature of cerebral atrophy in
the brains of alcoholics and likened it to brain shrinkage that occurs with
normal chronological aging (Courville 1966). That is, alcoholics and normal aging individuals showed fairly uniform cortical atrophy, most
138
prominent over the dorsolateral frontal regions and extending posteriorly into
the superior parietal lobule. From the observed similarities in the brains of
alcoholic and aging individuals sprang the search for parallels in functional
decline associated with alcoholism and aging, and a notion referred to as
the “premature aging hypothesis” (Ryan 1982), which will be discussed in
the following sections. First, however, one more item should be noted
regarding neuroanatomy and alcoholism: if alcoholics have developed
Korsakoff’s syndrome, damage to subcortical areas becomes more and more
prominent. Several of the subcortical areas implicated in the anterograde
amnesia of Korsakoff's syndrome are: (1) diencephalic structures such as
the mammillary bodies of the hypothalamus, and the dorsomedial thalamic
region (Victor et al. 1971); (2) basal forebrain structures such as the
nucleus basalis of Meynert (Arendt et al. 1983); and (3) medial temporal
lobe structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus (Mishkin and
Appenzeller 1987). Interestingly, Wilkinson and Carlen (1982) indicated
that the cortical brain morphology scores of Korsakoff patients were not age
related as they were in non-Korsakoff alcoholics; this suggests that
Korsakoff alcoholics may be “immune” to premature aging. If true, it may
be because Korsakoff patients already have suffered maximal alcohol-related
brain damage, as though a “basement” effect for central nervous system
(CNS) involvement had been reached.
PREMATURE AGING HYPOTHESIS
Researchers began to observe a distinct and important functional similarity
between (non-Korsakoff) alcoholics and chronically older normal controls.
That is, many laboratories reported selective deterioration by alcoholic or
aging individuals in their abilities to solve a variety of nonverbal tasks, in
contrast to their intact abilities on verbal tasks. Notable examples were the
low scores of both groups on the performance subscales of IQ tests, but not
on the verbal IQ subscales; however, there were many, many other examples (Ellis and Oscar-Berman 1989). The observation of similar nonverbal
functional decline, together with the similarity in gross neuroanatomical
findings of the two groups, led to the formulation of the “premature aging
hypothesis” of alcoholism. There actually were two versions of the premature aging hypothesis; the second seems to have held up better under experimental scrutiny than the first. Figure 1 shows the two versions of the
premature aging hypothesis.
According to the first version, labeled the “accelerated aging” hypothesis in
the figure, chronic alcoholism leads to the precocious development of behavioral changes typically associated with advancing age (Noonberg et al.
1985; Ryan 1982; Ryan and Butters 1980). Thus, cognitively and neuroanatomically, alcoholics become old before their time. The second version,
labeled the “age sensitivity” hypothesis in the figure, places the timing of
the changes somewhat differently (Noonberg et al. 1985; Ryan 1982). This
view holds that older brains are more vulnerable to the deleterious
139
FIGURE 1. Two versions of the premature aging hypothesis: Accelerated aging vs. age sensitivity
SOURCE: Ellis and Oscar-Berman 1989, copyright 1989, American Psychological Association.
140
consequences of alcohol abuse than are the brains of younger adults.
Therefore, it would be only after about the middle of the fourth decade—
when the manifestations of normal chronological aging begin to appear—
that alcoholics would begin to show greater impairments than their peers.
As already noted, the age-sensitivity version of the premature aging hypothesis has stood up better than the accelerated-aging version. An example
from a study recently completed in our laboratory is described in the following section (Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1989).
NONMATCHING-TO-SAMPLE (ODDITY) AND
DELAYED NONMATCHING-TO-SAMPLE
This particular study (Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1989) is described in detail
here for several important reasons. First, the results are prototypical for
demonstrating a positive example of the age-sensitivity version of the premature aging hypothesis. Second, the study is distinctive in its capabilities
for eliciting parallel functional deficits along several lines; perceptual processing, attention, learning, and short-term memory all can be assessed in the
same experiment (Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1985). Third, the study exemplifies an approach that is gaining momentum in the search for understanding learning and memory deficits consequent to human brain damage; the
approach simply employs the same behavioral paradigms that have been
used successfully for decades in disclosing specific deficits that result from
brain lesions in animals.
The tasks we employed were nonmatching-to-sample (NMTS) and delayed
nonmatching-to-sample (DNMTS). Figure 2, borrowed from a textbook
chapter on learning and memory in nonhuman primates (Harlow et al.
1971), shows the NMTS task being used with a monkey subject. For the
monkey to earn a reinforcement, it must select the odd stimulus out of the
three presented, thereby solving the problem “correctly.” When the odd one
is selected consistently, the monkey can be said to have learned the “nonmatching” or “oddity” strategy. For monkeys, the reinforcement usually is
a raisin or a peanut. With human subjects performing the version of the
task that we used (Maki and Leith 1973), pennies served as rewards.
The subjects in our study consisted of a total of 59 normal and alcoholic
men, including 13 with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome. The normals and
the non-Korsakoff alcoholics were equated for age within three age
brackets: 35 to 45, 46 to 59, and 60 and older. Those six subgroups,
each containing a minimum of seven subjects, formed the basis for one
set of statistical comparisons that we used for assessing the separate contributions of aging and alcoholism to any observed deficits. Because there
was not a sufficient number of Korsakoff patients in each of the three age
brackets to permit a similar comparison (the age range of the 13 Korsakoff alcoholics was between 41 and 71), we matched them with 13
141
FIGURE 2. A monkey performs the NMTS or oddity task
SOURCE: Harlow et al. 1971, copyright 1971, Academic Press, Inc.
non-Korsakoff alcoholics and 13 normals of the same ages for the purpose
of analyzing their data separately.
The experimental apparatus that we used is shown in figure 3. Subjects sat
facing a panel containing three adjacent stimulus keys (also serving as
manipulanda for responses). The stimuli were lights projected through filters from behind onto the stimulus keys, and consisted either of colors (red
or green), or of white lines (oriented vertically or horizontally). It was also
possible to compound the colors with the lines, thereby making red or green
horizontal lines and red or green vertical lines. The sample stimulus was
on the middle key, and the subjects’ choices had to be made by pressing
the right or the left stimulus key, whichever was the odd one of the three.
The apparatus was run with the aid of a computer program that allowed us
to obtain measures of four parameters: learning, attention, processing time,
and short-term memory. Learning was measured simply in terms of the
number of trials that it took each person to make 21 correct choices of the
odd stimulus in a block of 24 trials. There were no statistically significant
group differences by this measure. All groups, including the Korsakoff
alcoholics, were equally capable of learning the simple nonmatching or
oddity strategy.
Attention was manipulated by making the central stimulus simple or complex, thereby requiring the subjects to notice either one stimulus dimension
142
FIGURE 3. A human subject performs the NMTS or oddity task in our
neuropsychology laboratory
NOTE:
Colored lights or patterns are projected from behind onto the response panels.
or two stimulus dimensions. When the center stimulus was a simple one, it
varied only in color, or only in line orientation. In that case, subjects
would have to choose either between red and green or between vertical and
horizontal lines. When the center stimulus was complex, however, it contained a combination of one of the colors with one of the line orientations.
143
e.g., red with horizontal, making a stimulus that appeared as red horizontal
lines. In that case, the subjects still would have to make their choice from
a solid red light on one side and a solid green light on the other side (with
no lines in either of them), or they would have to choose between white
horizontal lines on one side and white vertical lines on the other, with color
being irrelevant. We reasoned that subjects with attentional deficits would
perform more poorly on those trials that required them to notice two dimensions to make the correct choice than on trials where they had to notice
only one dimension to make the correct choice. Although we found a
significant main effect of stimulus dimensions, there was no significant
group-by-dimensions interaction, indicating that all subjects, young and old,
alcoholic and nonalcoholic, did better on the simple condition than on the
complex condition. Hence, this particular manipulation of attention turned
out not to distinguish among the groups—probably because two stimulus
dimensions were not difficult enough.
Processing time was varied by randomly presenting the central sample stimulus for five different periods of time: 20, 40, 80, 120, and 500 milliseconds. Thus, if a subject had only 20 milliseconds to look at the sample
stimulus, he had considerably less time to process the information than on a
trial when he had 120 milliseconds. Processing time turned out to be a
very important parameter for distinguishing among the groups.
Figure 4 summarizes the results so far and also serves to introduce the
methods by which short-term memory was measured in the study. In figure
4, results are shown of the group comparisons involving the Korsakoff alcoholics, the non-Korsakoff alcoholics, and the normals. On the left side of
the figure, it is clear that the non-Korsakoff alcoholics were indistinguishable from the normals. The Korsakoff alcoholics, however, were impaired
at all durations of stimulus exposure except 500 milliseconds. Although the
performance of the Korsakoff alcoholics improved as exposure duration
increased, it reached the level of the controls only with the longest exposure
(where the controls were at a ceiling level). On the right side of figure 4,
the same groups were compared, and it remains clear that the Korsakoff
patients continued to perform at lower levels than the other groups. In fact,
the performance of the Korsakoff patients deteriorated, while performance of
the other groups remained fairly steady. Nonetheless, the independent variable was not how long the center stimulus was available but how long was
the delay between the center stimulus going off and the comparison stimuli
coming on, allowing subjects to make a choice. This interstimulus delay
was our measure of short-term memory. The subjects had to remember
during the delay what they saw just before the sample stimulus went off.
The right side of figure 4 actually shows the classic short-term memory
deficit in alcoholic Korsakoff patients (Talland 1965). There were six different interstimulus delays, ranging from 0 to 30 seconds; they were randomly presented across trials and randomly intermixed with the different
stimulus exposures mentioned earlier. For example, on one trial, a subject
144
FIGURE 4. Performance on the DNMTS tasks by alcoholic Korsakoff
patients, non-Korsakoff alcoholics, and normal controls
SOURCE: Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1989, copyright 1989, Psychonomic Society, Inc.
might have been given a red sample for 40 milliseconds, followed 30 seconds later by a choice between a red and a green stimulus (he should, of
course, have chosen green). On another trial, he might have been given a
set of green horizontal lines for 20 milliseconds, followed 12 seconds later
by a choice between horizontal and vertical white lines (he should have
chosen the vertical lines). The rule for correct responding never changed;
only the specific experimental parameters changed. In that sense, the task
actually was measuring two types of memory: memory for the rule of the
task, which always stayed the same, and memory for the information displayed before the delay, which changed on every trial.
In the human memory field, memory for rules would fall under the category
of “procedural” or “semantic” memories, and memory for specific bits of
new information would fall under the category of “declarative” or “episodic” memories (Squire and Butters 1984; Tulving 1985). Results with the
Korsakoff patients, showing intact oddity rule-learning, but impaired shortterm memory, confirmed many findings, published in the last few years,
that semantic or procedural memories are relatively spared in alcoholic
amnesia, but that declarative or episodic memories are especially vulnerable
in these subjects. Reviews may be found in Parsons et al. (1987) and
145
Squire and Butters (1984). What about detoxified alcoholics who did not
have Korsakoff’s syndrome?
Figure 5 shows the results for the comparisons of the six subgroups of agematched non-Korsakoff alcoholics and normals. Figure 5 represents a refined breakdown of the two groups that were not distinguishable in figure 4;
however, since the age range of the non-Korsakoff groups was wider than
that of the Korsakoff alcoholics, the total number of alcoholic and normal
subjects was greater. There was considerable overlap among the six subgroups except under the most difficult processing conditions (the shortest
exposure durations), and under the most stringent demands on short-term
memory (the longest interstimulus delays). Therefore, only the potentially
discriminating data were analyzed. Generally, the older subjects, both the
alcoholics and the normals, showed significant deficits in processing and
significant deficits in short-term memory, although their deficits were not
nearly as dramatic as the ones observed in the Korsakoff patients. There
was also a statistically significant age-by-alcoholism interaction with
processing time and delay interval. Even though figure 5 does not depict it,
this four-way interaction, when teased apart statistically, indicated that when
the experimental conditions placed increased demands upon processing and
memory, the older alcoholics (ages 60 and over) did not perform as well as
their younger counterparts; however, older normals were not significantly
different from younger controls. The reasons that the compounding effect
of alcoholism and aging is not apparent in figure 5 are that the effect was
small and the intergroup comparisons were based on combined data for the
three shortest durations and the three longest delays. Nonetheless, these
results provided some support for the age-sensitivity version of the premature aging hypothesis, which placed emphasis upon the appearance of
alcohol-related deficits in the older age range.
FIGURE 5. Performance on the DNMTS tasks by non-Korsakoff alcoholics
and normal controls in each of three age groups
SOURCE: Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1959, copyright 1989, Psychonomic Society, Inc.
146
To summarize the findings so far: (1) all groups were capable of learning
the simple NMTS strategy; (2) deficits in selective attention did not stand
out in this study, although there is evidence from other studies of reliable
attentional deficits in alcoholism and aging (Oscar-Berman 1980; OscarBerman 1984; Oscar-Berman and Ellis 1987); (3) semantic or procedural
memories in alcoholic and aging groups were not compromised compared to
shorter term declarative or episodic memories, where alcoholic Korsakoff
patients and, to a lesser degree, the older groups showed deficits; (4) alcoholic Korsakoff patients, and—again to a lesser degreed—older subjects with
and without an alcohol history were retarded in perceptual processing ability; and, finally, (5) the added characteristic of alcohol abuse compounded
the effects of aging only in the most difficult experimental conditions (short
stimulus durations and long interstimulus delays), thus lending some support
to the age-sensitivity version of the premature aging hypothesis. These
results emphasized a note of caution expressed by many other investigators:
when studying behavioral phenomena in alcoholics, including attention, percaption, learning, and memory, it is important to consider the contributions
of aging to any observed abnormalities (Grant 1986; Parsons et al. 1987;
Riege 1987; Ryan 1982).
COMPARATIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY: THE USE OF
COMPARABLE MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE IN BRAINDAMAGED HUMANS AND MONKEYS
The DNMTS task has been very popular for assessing the effects of brain
damage in human and nonhuman primates, and deficits in monkeys have
been reported following damage to brain structures implicated in human
memory disorders. For example, several laboratories reported finding deficits after bilateral damage to diencephalic or medial temporal lobe structures
(Aggleton and Mishkin 1983; Gaffan et al. 1984, Mahut et al. 1982;
Mishkin 1978; Z&-Morgan et al. 1982). Goldman-Rakic and her group
(Witt and Goldman-Rakic 1983) also reported DNMTS deficits in monkeys
with experimentally induced thiamine deficiency—an animal model of
Korsakoff's disease. Although those deficits were associated with brainstem
lesions, the affected brainstem regions are known to project to cortical association regions, which in turn have been found to be important for normal
performance on nonmatching types of tasks (Horel 1978; Lhermitte and
Signoret 1976; Mishkin 1978; Oscar-Berman and Bonner 1985). Surprisingly, regions relatively spared by thiamine deprivation were the diencephalic
and medial temporal areas typically implicated in human amnesia (mammillary bodies of the hypothalamus, dorsomedial thalamic nuclei, hippocampus,
and amygdala). Patients with diffuse cortical atrophy, characteristic of
Alzheimer’s disease, also have demonstrated DNMTS deficits (Albert and
Moss 1984).
Based upon the patterns of results from the nonmatching studies reviewed
so far, it appears that, in alcoholism, widespread cortical damage was
147
responsible for at least some aspects of the observed deficits (especially
those related to processing), while other aspects of the deficits (especially in
short-term memory) were related to subcortical damage. This conclusion is
based upon relative contributions of cortical and subcortical damage, because one does not exist without the other in chronic neurological disease.
DNMTS is only one experimental paradigm successfully employed to disclose human impairments and directly comparable to animal models of cognitive deficits. Many more paradigms are being used with increasing frequency in behavioral neurology (Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1986b; Kish
et al. 1988). For example, delayed-response and delayed-alternation tasks,
which are sensitive to frontal system damage, have been used to differentiate among the dementias of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases
(Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1986b; Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1986c),
Korsakoff’s syndrome (Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1986a; Oscar-Berman
et al. 1982) and olivopontocerebellar atrophy (El-Awar et al. 1988). Also
used have been tactual discrimination learning tasks (Freedman and OscarBerman 1986b; Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1987). as well as visual and
spatial discrimination learning tasks (Freedman and Oscar-Berman 1989;
Oscar-Berman and Zola-Morgan 1980a; Oscar-Berman and Zola-Morgan
1980b; Squire et al. 1988; Zeaman and House 1963), which are sensitive to
damage in other cortical association regions (including parietal and temporal
cortex). Operant conditioning paradigms and probability learning tasks,
which are sensitive to damage to frontal and limbic system structures, have
been used for many years (Bitterman 1975; Oscar-Berman et al. 1976;
Oscar-Berman et al. 1980). Further, Razran’s 1971 review includes a
description of the work of Ivanov-Smolensky in the 1920s. These and other
paradigms are staple repertoires in the laboratories of experimental and
physiological psychologists, and they have considerable promise for disclosing residual effects of abused drugs.
HEMISPHERIC ASYMMETRIES AND PERCEPTUAL LEARNING
AND MEMORY
Prior to the discussion of NMTS tasks, note was made of a consistent finding of poor performance in alcoholic and aging groups on nonverbal tasks.
Although the topic of nonverbal performance was described as one manifestation of the premature aging hypothesis of alcoholism, the topic has importance for another reason as well. That is, it also may shed light on learning and memory deficits in the same groups. The nonverbal tasks that
alcoholic and aging subjects had trouble with were similar to the kinds of
tasks that patients with damage to the right hemisphere were known to have
trouble with (Goodglass and Kaplan 1979; Kaplan 1988). These observations led, independently, to the “right hemisphere hypothesis” in the alcoholism literature (Parsons 1975). and to the “right hemisphere hypothesis” in
the aging literature (Klisz 1978). These two hypotheses actually erupted
separately, and they were not immediately related lo the premature aging
148
hypothesis, which had derived from observed similarities in structural and
functional decline of alcoholic and aging subjects. The right hemisphere
hypothesis, whether applied to alcoholic or aging individuals, suggested
simply that a disproportionate decline in nonverbal functions was due to a
differential sensitivity of the functions subserved by the right hemisphere, to
the biological onslaught of alcoholism and of aging. The hypothesis was
descriptive rather than explanatory, because no specific mechanisms were
postulated. In our laboratory, we tested the right hemisphere hypothesis
directly, by employing tasks sensitive to functional asymmetries of the two
cerebral hemispheres. As a class, these tasks are referred to as dichotomous
stimulation tasks; they rely upon the simultaneous inputs from two separate
sensory channels on the left and the right sides of the body—the two ears,
the two visual half-fields, or the two hands, for example. Mainly because
of the organization of our nervous system, with language lateralized to the
left half of the brain and nonlanguage lateralized more or less to the right
half of the brain, along with the predominance of crossed connections of the
sensory fields with contralateral brain areas, under dichotomous stimulus
input conditions (with the right and left input channels competing), the right
input channel is superior to the left when verbal stimulus materials are used,
and the left side is superior to the right with nonverbal stimulus materials.
We administered the dichotomous stimulus tests with three different sensory
input modalities (vision, touch, and audition), and we administered them
under a variety of experimental conditions (Ellis and Oscar-Berman 1989;
Oscar-Berman 1988). The majority of the findings from most of our experiments can be summarized as follows: there was some evidence. for certain
changes occurring as a result of alcoholism only in older persons, whose
brains may be increasingly susceptible to the effects of alcohol. However,
the combined effects of alcoholism and aging were not nearly as apparent
as the changes that occurred with aging alone. Furthermore, results did not
support the hypothesis that alcoholism differentially affects right hemisphere
function compared to left hemisphere function.
In reviewing most of the published research conducted in this area over the
last 10 years, including our own, Ellis and Oscar-Berman (1989) concluded
that the similarities between alcoholic and aging subjects extended beyond
the realm of nonverbal tasks. The early emphasis on defective nonverbal
performance appeared to be an artifact of at least two features of the nonverbal tasks employed: perceptual processing demands and demands related
to formulating effective strategies for encoding information into short-term
memory. Most simple verbal tasks, perhaps because they were easily processed, tended to be approached with simple strategies. Nonverbal tasks
used materials that were less familiar than words, required more time to be
processed, and were solved by elaborate strategies. When sufficient
processing time was permitted and when strategies were simplified in one
way or another, alcoholic and aging subjects performed on nonverbal tasks
as well as they could perform on verbal tasks. Their total performance
levels were lower than those of younger subjects, just as they were in the
149
DNMTS tasks, and probably for the same reasons-not because of greater
right than left hemisphere decline. When Korsakoff patients were tested on
dichotomous stimulation tasks, they showed the same asymmetries as everybody else, but their total levels of performance were even lower than
everybody else’s, just as they were in the DNMTS tasks and for the same
reasons.
CONCLUSION
Two general conclusions emerge from these diverse experimental approaches
to assessing learning and memory deficits in detoxified alcoholics. First,
learning deficits may be related to perceptual processing deficits, which in
turn may be related to diffuse neocortical damage associated with long-term
alcohol abuse (sometimes compounded by aging); these deficits are not
greater in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. Second, memory deficits, especially those dependent upon short-term memory capacity,
may be related to damage below the level of the cortex and probably are
not as sensitive to age-related changes as the cortically mediated functions.
TOPICS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
To go forward with an integrated clinical and research approach to understanding the residual effects of abused drugs on behavior, there must be
interdisciplinary communication and a view toward the future (OscarBerman 1989). This volume contains contributions from representatives of
diverse clinical and laboratory environments, to foster interdisciplinary
communication. With an eye toward the future, six topic areas have been
selected for special consideration; these areas likely would benefit considerably from a continued, cooperative venture between clinicians and
researchers:
1. Comparative Neuropsychology. By employing sensitive tasks derived
from experimental and physiological psychology, subtle attentional, perceptual, motivational, and learning and memory deficits (especially those
related to damaged neocortical brain regions) may be detected and
described.
2. Affect, Emotional changes have been reported subsequent to damage of
diverse brain regions thought to be vulnerable in substance abuse, e.g.,
the prefrontal cortex, the right hemisphere, and the limbic system.
Careful study of the topic of affective functions in substance abusers
could shed light on the nature of their cognitive deficits.
3. Polydrug Abuse. Many abused substances are used concurrently by one
individual. The separate, as well as interactive, contributions of abused
drugs to behavioral changes need clarification.
150
4. Gender Differences. Because there are important gender differences in
brain structure and function, and because males are less variable than
females in hormonal and endocrine influences, more research has
employed male than female subjects. It would be important to explore
the contribution and nature of gender differences in response to abused
substances.
5 . Subtypes. “Alcoholism” is not a unitary concept. Several subtypes of
alcoholics have been described, along with differing etiologies (Parsons
et al. 1987; Vaillant 1983). Childhood hyperactivity and attentional
deficit disorder especially have been implicated in etiology and in outcome. Knowledge of important etiological factors may help to define
vulnerability, intervention, and prognosis.
6.
Neurotransmitter and Neuroimmune Systems. The ways in which alcoholism affects neurotransmitter systems and immune systems are not
well known. Likewise, the ways in which most neurological changes
(including those associated with normal aging) are expressed in these
systems are not well known. Clarification of the relationship of neurological changes in alcoholism to changes in neurotransmitters, as well
as to changes in the immune system, would profit from further
investigation.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Research Grant AA 007112 and by funds from the U.S. Department of
Veterans' Affairs Medical Research Service.
AUTHOR
Marlene Oscar-Berman, Ph.D.
Division of Psychiatry and Department of Neurology
Boston University School of Medicine
and
Psychology Research Service
Department of Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center
85 East Newton Street
Boston, MA 02118
155
Persisting Neurotoxic
Consequences of Solvent Abuse:
A Developing Animal Model for
Toluene-Induced Neurotoxicity
Gordon T. Pryor
INTRODUCTION
Long-term, heavy users of various psychoactive substances run the potential
risk of irreversible damage to the nervous system. The extent to which
such irreversible damage represents a real threat is, however, debatable. In
fact, clear examples of irreversible dysfunction and pathologic damage to
neural structures that can be unequivocally attributed to the neurotoxic consequences of specific abused substances are relatively rare. The volatile
organic solvents represent a class of abused compounds that engenders especially serious concern (Sharp and Brehm 1977; Sharp and Carroll 1978;
Crider and Rouse 1988).
Intuitively, but perhaps naively, many people have assumed that heavy
exposure to these lipophilic substances would dissolve neural tissue, or at
least some of its constituents. In fact, only a small number of organic solvents have been unequivocally shown to cause neuropathologic damage to
the nervous system in animals and humans, e.g., carbon disulfide, n-hexane,
methyl n-butyl ketone, trichloroethylene (Spencer et al. 1985). Nevertheless,
there is reason for real concern. The lack of definitive proof of the neurotoxicity of the majority of solvents can be attributed more to a lack of systematic and relevant investigation than to substantive negative data proving
that they are innocuous. A case in point is toluene, which is found in a
variety of abused products and that has been ascribed by many clinicians to
be the agent responsible for causing “brain damage” in heavy solvent
abusers.
Toluene is a significant component of many abused solvent products and is
the only pure solvent that frequently has been reported to be inhaled for its
156
euphoric effects (Grabski 1961; Knox and Nelson 1966). Also, it has been
demonstrated that primates will self-administer toluene by pressing a lever
to produce the vapors, thus attesting to its rewarding properties (Wood
1978). Among the products reportedly abused for their euphorigenic effects
are glues, cements, and adhesives; paint and lacquer thinners and removers;
spray paints; degreasers and various cleaning fluids; typewriter correction
fluid; gasoline; and toluene. These products are typically mixtures of various solvents formulated for their physicochemical properties. Specific
brands become popular and are used almost exclusively for their euphoric
effects as long as they are available. Toluene is contained in large proportions in the most frequently chosen products, and toluene is the only pure
solvent to be frequently abused. Thus, toluene may be the sought-after
component that most promotes the abuse of product mixtures.
If toluene is the major sought-after euphoriant in abused products, regardless
of its own toxicity, then its presence may promote exposure of the solvent
abuser to other constituents of the product that are unequivocally dangerous
(n-hexane, metals). However, because toluene is a common component of
various products used by heavy solvent abusers who require medical attention-because of neurologic or neurobehavioral symptoms, as well as renal
dysfunction (Streicher et al. 1981)—many clinicians (and toxicologists) have
concluded that toluene is, in fact, responsible. The evidence for this conclusion has been mainly circumstantial.
Toluene has received considerable attention by toxicologists. In reviews by
Hayden and associates (1977) and Benignus (1981a; Benignus 1981b), it has
gotten a surprisingly clean bill of health as a toxicant in general and as a
neurotoxicant in particular. Why then is the notion so strong (as reflected
in frequent literature citations, for example) that toluene is a major neurotoxicant associated with solvent abuse? The remainder of this chapter will
be directed towards examining the evidence for this notion and recounting
our own experience in trying to find the answer experimentally.
OTOTOXICITY OF TOLUENE
Our involvement with the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the area of
solvent abuse began in 1976. This association resulted in some of the most
extensive laboratory investigations conducted to date of the neurotoxicity of
solvents. Toluene was a major focus of these investigations for the reasons
cited above. Nonetheless, using a variety of behavioral and electrophysiologic methods that were designed, developed, and validated for the purpose
of screening potentially neurotoxic substances (Pryor et al. 1983c; Rebert
1983), we were unable to find convincing evidence that toluene caused any
persisting neurobehavioral or electrophysiologic dysfunction in rats (Pryor
et al. 1983a).
157
Because of the results of these studies, we began to question whether toluene was really responsible for the neurotoxic consequences of heavy solvent
abuse. In reexamining the clinical literature, it was evident that in most
cases other solvents or other conditions could have been responsible for the
reported dysfunctions. Moreover, it was not clear whether the symptoms
reported were persistent or whether they cleared upon abstention. Finally,
only in a few cases was the chemical composition of the abused products
verified, and polydrug use was a frequent complication.
Nevertheless, there were a few reports that made it difficult to dismiss toluene as a neurotoxicant. Cases in which toluene appeared to be the only
solvent used created the suspicion that our laboratory results with rats may
not have been as definitive as they appeared. Perhaps we were using the
wrong species or the wrong measures (our test battery was designed as a
general screening method). In any event, although we were unable at that
time to induce a persisting neurotoxic syndrome in our animal model, we
were uncomfortable with the conclusion that toluene was totally innocuous.
One of the methods used in the studies cited above was a computerautomated multisensory conditioned avoidance response, in which visual,
auditory, and somatosensory stimuli were used to assess sensorimotor function. It was designed to monitor function in the three sensory modalities in
the same animals so as to detect specific sensory deficits. Because we had
not, in fact, found such specific sensory effects in the many experiments
done with a wide variety of chemicals over some 10 years (Pryor et al.
1983c), we began to question its ability to serve its intended purpose and
set out to systematically examine its validity in this regard. For validation,
we used chemicals or conditions that were known to affect specific sensory
systems. For the auditory system, we used the ototoxic antibiotic kanamycin (Prosen et al. 1980). From human and animal studies, it was known
that this drug caused damage to the hair cells in the cochlea and that the
damage proceeds such that the areas receptive to high frequencies are
affected first, followed by areas associated with decreasing frequency. With
this in mind, and aware of the fact that the auditory sensitivity of the rat is
at much higher frequencies than that of the human (Kelley and Masterton
1977), we used a 20-kHz-tone stimulus in these studies. In all previous
applications, including those to examine the potential neurotoxic effects of
toluene, we had used a 4-kHz tone. The validity of the procedure was
clearly demonstrated by a progressive loss of the ability to perform the
avoidance response to the 20-kHz tone by the rats treated with kanamycin,
without any effect on performance of the avoidance response to the light
and somatosensory shock stimuli.
Subsequently, for reasons unrelated to the solvent studies, we retested, using
the 20-kHz-tone, a group of rats that had been exposed chronically to toluene more than 2 months earlier. Whereas these rats performed the response
to the light and the somatosensory stimulus (low-intensity current to the
158
feet) at levels comparable to those of unexposed controls, they appeared
unable to hear the tone. This serendipitous observation led us to conduct a
series of tests in which the frequency of the tone was varied from 4 to
20 kHz, and estimates of sensitivity at each frequency were obtained by
varying the intensity (Pryor et al. 1983b). The results suggested that the
earlier exposure to toluene had caused a persisting and marked loss of auditory sensitivity that was clearly evident at the higher frequencies (8 kHz
and above) with no apparent loss at 4 kHz, the frequency we had routinely
used in the past. Suspicious of a possible behavioral artifact, we also tested
rats using the brainstem auditory-evoked response (BAER). This procedure
had also been used previously, using a click stimulus with a frequency
spectrum centered around 5 kHz. For these later tests, we used tone pips
of 8, 12, and 16 kHz in addition to the clicks. The results showed clear
evidence of hearing loss that was greatest at the higher frequencies (Rebert
et al. 1983). Moreover, analyses of these results suggested a peripheral
rather than a central locus for the effect.
We then conducted a series of experiments to confirm and characterize the
nature of the toluene-induced hearing loss and the exposure conditions that
caused it (Pryor et al. 1987). The results of this extensive series of experiments indicated that: (1) weanling rats were more sensitive to the effect
than young adults; (2) the hearing loss was frequency dependent; (3) there
was damage to the peripheral receptors (hair cells in the cochlea); (4) the
effect was concentration, duration, and exposure-schedule dependent;
(5) subcutaneous injection of toluene was as effective as inhalation exposure, thereby demonstrating a systemic effect; and (6) related solvents such
as xylenes and styrene were equally as effective or more effective than
toluene, whereas unrelated solvents such as n-hexane, methylene chloride,
and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) were without effect (unpublished).
This discovery of a toluene-induced hearing loss in rats also led us to reexamine the clinical literature for evidence of a similar effect in humans.
Indeed, hearing loss, although not a frequently reported symptom, was associated with exposure to toluene or toluene-containing substances in both industrial accidents (Biscaldi et al. 1981) and heavy solvent abusers (Ehyai
and Freeman 1983).
THE CLINICAL SYNDROME ASSOCIATED WITH TOLUENE
CONTAINING SOLVENT ABUSE
Reports continued to appear that made it more and more difficult to dismiss
toluene as the agent causing moderate to severe neurologic dysfunction in
heavy solvent abusers. The reports from two groups of investigators were
especially convincing.
Fornazzari and colleagues (1983) described the symptomatology associated
with a fairly large group of solvent abusers in Toronto, Canada. These
159
patients used almost exclusively a specific brand of contact cement that the
authors stated contained primarily toluene. When we analyzed the composition of this cement, however, we found it to be a complex mixture that, in
addition to toluene, contained significant amounts of the known neurotoxicant n-hexane and its reported synergist MEK (Altenkirch et al. 1978).
Nevertheless, the symptomatology described by these investigators did not
fit that expected from these latter solvents, i.e., it did not include a peripheral neuropathy. Instead, the major neurologic symptoms suggested primarily central damage, especially to cerebellar structure controlling motor
coordination. Other prominent symptoms included cognitive dysfunction,
pyramidal tract disorders, and sensory dysfunction, including hearing loss.
Similar results were reported by Rosenberg and coworkers (Hormes et al.
1986, Rosenberg et al. 1988) who had studied a fairly large number of
patients in Denver, CO. In these cases, the product was a specific brand of
spray paint that contained mainly toluene, but also contained significant
amounts of methylene chloride and small amounts of xylenes. The results
of this study were especially important because the investigators took care
to ensure that most patients had been solvent free for several weeks to
months at the time of examination, thus reducing the possibility of residual
acute effects. Moreover, the BAER was used to provide objective evidence
of central involvement, and magnetic resonance imaging of several patients
appeared to indicate brain atrophy.
The common component in the two products from Toronto and Denver was
toluene. Because both were mixtures, unequivocal identification of this
solvent as the causative agent could not be made. Moreover, the possibility
of interactions among the various components and the contribution of other
factors, such as polydrug use, could not be discounted.
The following list presents the clinical signs and symptoms most commonly
reported in patients who have, over a period of time, heavily abused solvents containing toluene.
Unilateral or bilateral hearing
loss
Loss of sense of smell
Diffuse slowing of the EEG
Abnormal or absent BAER
Diffuse cerebral, cerebellar, and
brainstem atrophy
Enlarged ventricles and widening
of cortical sulci, especially in the
frontal or temporal cortex
Short-term memory loss
Emotional instability
Cognitive impairment
Slurred and “scanning” speech
Wide-based ataxic gait
Staggering or stumbling in trying
to walk
Nystagmus
Ocular flutter
Tremor
Optic neuropathy
160
When we next had the opportunity to study toluene, we used this list as a
guide to select and develop behavioral tests that might reflect similar signs
and symptoms in rats chronically exposed to toluene. Several of the clinical signs and symptoms form a cluster that neurologists refer to as
“cerebellar ataxia.” Therefore, we chose a series of tests that we thought
would reflect various aspects of motor function that could be measured
objectively:
Forelimb and hindlimb grip strengths;
Rotorod performance;
Gait analysis-stride length, stride width, stride angle; and
Landing hindlimb foot splay.
The tests of grip strength (Meyer et al. 1979) make use of strain gauges to
measure the force required to break the rat’s grip on a bar by both forepaws and hindpaws. These tests are sensitive to the peripheral neuropathy
caused by n-hexane and related hexacarbons (Pryor et al. 1983a). The rotorod test is used to measure the rat’s ability to balance and locomote on a
rotating rod that is incrementally increased in rate of rotation until the rat
falls off. To quantitate the rat’s pattern of walking, its hind feet are linked,
and it is allowed to walk down an alley covered with a blotter to record its
steps (Jolicoeur et al. 1979). The pattern of walking is then analyzed in
terms of the length, width, and angle of the steps taken. Similarly, the rat’s
reflexive response to being dropped from a short height is recorded as the
distance between the hind feet on landing.
In the first experiment in this series, we exposed groups of weanling rats
for 8 hours per day, 7 days per week to toluene (2,000 to 2,600 ppm),
n-hexane (2,000 to 2,600 ppm), or a mixture of toluene, n-hexane, and
MEK (2,000 to 5,200 total ppm in approximately equal amounts).
n-Hexane was included as a positive control because we knew that the exposure schedule would induce a peripheral neuropathy that would be reflected in the measures of grip strength (Pryor et al. 1983a). The mixture was
included as a preliminary test of possible interactions among three of the
components that were found in the contact cement used in Toronto, Canada.
The entire battery of tests was given periodically beginning after 7 weeks of
exposure and for 6 weeks after the exposure ended.
The results clearly indicated that exposure to toluene had caused a persisting
motor syndrome that was different from that caused by exposure to
n-hexane. The expected decreases in grip strength were the major effects
of exposure to n-hexane, whereas this effect was not seen in the rats
exposed to toluene (figure 1). The nature of the toluene-induced syndrome
can be seen in figure 2. The syndrome was characterized by a shortened
161
FIGURE 1. Effect of toluene, n-hexane, or a mixture of tolune, n-hexane,
and MEK on grip strength
NOTE:
Values are expressed relative to control means in variance units.
and widened gait and a widened landing foot splay. Such a pattern in the
four-legged rat is at least suggestive of the “wide-based ataxic gait”
162
FIGURE 2. Effect of toluene on a battery of tests of motor coordination
NOTE:
Values are expressed relative to control means in variance units.
associated with cerebellar ataxia in humans. Interestingly, the rats exposed
to the mixture first took on some of the characteristics of the rats exposed
to toluene, but the final outcome was a decrease in grip strength as in the
rats exposed to n-hexane (figure 1).
The essential aspects of this experiment have now been replicated several
times under various conditions in our laboratory (manuscripts in preparation), and the development of the syndrome appears to be robust and persisting. We have also looked at the effects of other solvents (methylene
chloride and MEK), both alone and in combination with toluene, on this
battery of tests. Thus, far, only toluene has caused the persisting motor
syndrome just described.
CRITERIA FOR DEFINING A SUBSTANCE AS BEING
NEUROTOXIC
Most, if not all, abused psychoactive substances may impair performance or
result in socially unacceptable behavior because of their acute pharmacologic
effects. Compulsive use may also result in behavior that is morally and
legally unacceptable and may cause a progressive deterioration of family,
work, and social relationships. At this time, the extent to which persisting
163
or permanent damage to the nervous system results from substance abuse is
less clear. Spencer and associates (1985) have suggested the following criteria for defining a substance as the causative agent responsible for persisting nervous system damage:
1. There is a consistent pattern of neurologic dysfunction in humans associated with well-documented exposure to the substance.
2. The syndrome (all or in part) can be mimicked in animals by appropriate exposure to the substance.
3.
Neuropathologic “lesions” can be demonstrated in the nervous system or
the peripheral sense organs that satisfactorily account for the dysfunction
in humans and animals.
In their view, “failure to satisfy any of these criteria leaves room for doubt
that the suspect agent is capable of impairing the structure or function of
the nervous system” (Spencer et al., p. 53).
A PARTIAL MODEL OF TOLUENE-INDUCED BRAIN
DYSFUNCTION
If we assume that the motor syndrome in rats caused by exposure to toluene is analogous to the “cerebellar ataxia” observed in humans, then, along
with the demonstration of tolueneinduced hearing loss in rats, we have a
partial animal model of the syndrome associated with human abuse of
toluene-containing solvents. In turn, these results with rats provide some of
the necessary evidence, as defined by the criteria listed in the previous section, that toluene is in fact the toxicant responsible for at least part of the
human syndrome. To the extent that all or most of the signs and symptoms
listed are reflective of the effects of heavy toluene abuse in humans, our
model is still incomplete. However, by designing tests to look specifically
for some of these other dysfunctions, we are optimistic that they can be
demonstrated in our rat model if they are caused by toluene. Regardless of
the outcome of such further research, the results obtained thus far are sufficient to begin attempting to identify the brain structures and mechanisms
involved. Again, clues from the clinical literature will be used to guide this
search. Cerebellar involvement is clearly suggested, but we have not seen
damage to this structure at the light microscopic level in hemotoxylin and
eosin stained sections. The report of Rosenberg and colleagues (1988)
based on magnetic resonance imaging suggests more subtle neuropathologic
lesions involving myelin. Identification of such a locus in our rat model
would provide needed support for this suggestion and would satisfy the final
criterion for identifying toluene as a neurotoxicant.
164
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Dysfunction National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph 15.
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Print. Off., 1977.
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Spencer, P.S.; Path, M.R.C.; and Schaumberg, H.H. Organic solvent neurotoxicity: Facts and research needs. Stand J Work Environ Health
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by U.S. Public Health Service contract numbers
271-77-3402, 271-80-3712, and 271-87-3132 from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse (Dr. Charles W. Sharp, Project Officer). Dr. Charles S. Rebert,
as a coinvestigator at SRI, collaborated extensively on these projects and
provided helpful comments to this manuscript.
AUTHOR
Gordon T. Pryor, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Department
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
166
Cognitive Deficits in Abstaining
Cocaine Abusers
Ronald I. Herning, Barbara J. Glover, Bonnie Koeppl,
William Weddington, and Jerome H. Jaffe
INTRODUCTION
Cocaine abusers may be cognitively impaired when they abstain from
cocaine. Evidence for possible decrements in cognition comes indirectly
from several sources. The descriptions of psychiatric sequelae occurring in
patients withdrawing from cocaine include sleep loss and depression (Gawin
and Kleber 1986; Baxter 1983). In cocaine nonabusers, attentional deficits
and psychomotor retardation were observed during sleep deprivation and
depression (Weiss and Laties 1962; Thier et al. 1986; Massiouri and
Lesevre 1988). Cognitive alterations may accompany the sleep loss and
depression observed during cocaine withdrawal. In addition, Melamed and
Bleiberg (1986) reported a brief decrement in a maze task and persistent
poor performance on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition test (PSAT) in
patients treated for free-base cocaine abuse. Cocaine abusers had decreased
relative cerebral blood flow in prefrontal cortical areas as compared to
controls (Volkow et al. 1988). Sensitive neurophysiological and cognitive
testing may document other alterations during abstinence. The use of eventrelated potentials (ERPs) coupled with cognitive performance testing has
been one exquisitely sensitive approach (Callaway 1983).
Cognitive and performance deficits during cocaine withdrawal have important applied as well as theoretical implications in treatment and in the workplace. Specific cognitive deficits such as attentional problems or memory
loss may hamper effective psychiatric treatment. Likewise, poor job performance may put the withdrawing user and the public at greater risk of an
accident. Only two studies have investigated the possible cognitive impairment in heavy cocaine abusers (Melamed and Bleiberg 1986; Volkow et al.
1988). These studies were limited to the first 10 days of abstinence and
had no control groups. Further research is clearly indicated.
167
The present study investigated cognitive information processing and performance in cocaine abusers before and during inpatient treatment. The
focus was on the first few weeks of treatment. Because psychiatric counseling was the only treatment used in this study, drug-free assessment of
cognitive function was possible. ERP measures as well as behavioral performance indices were used to quantify the possible impairments. The ERP
methodology allows inferences to be made as to which aspects of cognition
may be affected by cocaine abstinence. The study is currently in progress;
data presented are from the patients and control subjects analyzed at the
time of this report.
METHODS
Subjects
Twelve males seeking treatment for cocaine abuse were studied along with
nine controls. No subjects had medical problems. The demographics, selfreported history of cocaine use, and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) are
presented in table 1. The ASI employment scale is slightly elevated for the
controls. Besides a self-reported history of cocaine abuse that met DSMIIIR criteria, each patient had a urine sample positive for cocaine on an
outpatient visit. All but one subject, who snorted, self-administered cocaine
intravenously. The axis I diagnoses other than substance dependence in
the patient group included one patient with depression. Seven subjects
in the patient group had axis II diagnoses of antisocial personality.
Cognitive Information Processing Tasks
Selected tasks from the Neurophysiological Workload Test Battery (NWTB)
were administered to the subjects. NWTB provides a series of tasks that
can be quickly learned and uses neurophysiologic and performance measures
to assess impairment. The neurophysiologic measures included the amplitude and latency of ERP components elicited by task stimuli. The performance measures included correctness and reaction time as well as specialized measures for visual motor tracking. The tasks and measures are listed
in table 2.
The auditory rare-event-monitoring task is a version of the P300 oddball
task (Squires et al. 1977). The subject counted low-pitched (1,000 Hz)
tones from a random series (a tone/second) of high- (2,000 Hz) and lowpitched tones. The low-pitched tones occurred about 20 percent of the
time. The tones were presented every 2 seconds. After the subject listened
to the series for 4 minutes, he reported his count to the researcher. N100
and P300 components were measured from the rare-tone ERP. The correctness measure was the ratio of the subject’s count over the actual number of
tones presented.
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TABLE 1. Demographic and drug use data for patients and control
subjects (means±SD)
Data
Patients
(n=12)
Control Subjects
(n=9)
Age
27.9±6.3
32.1±4.3
Education
12.1±3.2
11.2±1.9
Cocaine Use
Age of First Use
Years Dependent
Amount/Week (grams)
19.2±5.8
3.7±3.0
6.7±3.9
Addiction Severity Index (0-9)
Drug
Alcohol
Medical
Employment
Family and Social
Psychiatric
Legal
9.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
3.7±2.0
4.8±1.2
4.6±1.4
1.1±1.9
—
—
—
0.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
1.10±1.20
0.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
0.0±0.0
TABLE 2. Neurophysiologic workload test battery tasks
Task
Measure
Auditory Rare Event Monitoring
N100 and P300 components of
ERP, correctness
Reaction time, correctness
P300 component of ERP,
reaction time
RMS error, edge violations
Visual Rare Event Monitoring
Sternberg Memory (2 set sizes)
Visual Motor Tracking
During the visual rare-event monitoring task, the subject viewed a television
monitor. Two squares and two triangles traveled in random directions
across the screen, periodically flashing. The subject was to press a pushbutton when he observed a square change its direction. A square changed
direction about 80 times during the 5-minute test. Percentage of correct
detections and reaction time were performance measures for this task. Because the change of direction does not produce clear ERP, no ERP measurea were included.
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The Sternberg (1969a; Sternberg 1969b; Sternberg 1975) memory task was
presented on a television monitor. Two- and four-letter sets were used.
For a given test, a two- or four-letter set was presented to the subject for
30 seconds. Single letters were then presented at the rate of one every
3 seconds. The subject pressed a pushbutton with the preferred hand if the
letter was in the set that had been presented or another pushbutton with the
other hand if the letter was not in the memory set. P300 amplitude and
latency were measured from the ERP elicited by the in-set and out-of-set
letters. The performance measure was reaction time.
The visual motor tracking task was also presented on a television monitor.
An inverted “T” moved randomly in the vertical dimension. The subject’s
task was, by using a joystick, to stabilize the inverted “T” between two
horizontal bars in the center of the screen. Root Mean Square (RMS) error
and edge violations measures of tracking performance were calculated.
ERP Recording and Measurement
The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from C2 referred to A, with
Grass, Model 7P511, amplifier using a half-amplitude bandpass from .1 to
100 Hz with a notch filter at 60 Hz. The electrocularogram (EOG) was
also recorded and used for monitoring eye movement artifacts. Sensor
Medics silver/silver chloride electrodes were used at all sites. Electrode
impedances were below 3 Kohm. The NWTB averaged the raw single trial
ERPs according to stimulus type (rare/frequent, in-set/out-of-set, etc.) and
determined the amplitude and latency for the P300 component of the averaged ERP waveforms. The measurements were reviewed by a researcher
and corrected if necessary. The researcher also manually measured the
amplitude and latency of N100 in the auditory event-monitoring task.
Testing Procedure
On an outpatient visit to the Addiction Research Center, the subject was
given an explanation of each NWTB task and then allowed to practice on
each task. After each practice, the subject performed that task, and the
EEG was recorded.
The subject was admitted to the inpatient research ward before 11 a.m. on
the first inpatient day (day 1). The first inpatient day ranged from the first
to the fourth day after the outpatient-test day. The inpatient tests were
administered on day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, about day 7, about day 14, and
about day 21. All cognitive testing and EEG recording were performed
while the subject sat in a comfortable reclining chair in an electrically
shielded, sound-attenuated chamber. The auditory stimuli were delivered
through earphones, and visual stimuli were presented on a video monitor
1 meter from the subject’s face. The subject’s behavioral responses were
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obtained from a verbal response, pushbutton(s), or a handheld joystick,
depending on the task.
Statistical Considerations
Difference scores, calculated by subtracting the outpatient score from each
inpatient day, were used to control for possible baseline differences between
the patients and control subjects. Limited missing data were approximated
using the guidelines and procedures described by Winer (1962), so univariate analysis of variance could be performed. To ease the interpretability
and to reduce the number of post hoc comparisons made, the simple effect
and simple interaction procedures described by Winer (1962) were used to
interpret significant higher order interactions. In these procedures, higher
order interactions are reduced into multiple simple effects or simple interactions at individual levels of another factor, and Tukey type A post hoc
comparisons are made only when significant simple effects or interactions
are observed. A .05 probability level was chosen for statistical significance.
RESULTS
Auditory Rare-Event-Monitoring Task
No significant differences between the patient and control group were
observed for N100 amplitude and latency of the target tone ERP or correctness in this task. There was a slight tendency for N100 latency for the
patients to increase on day 14 and day 21. Perhaps with testing after day
21 this difference might continue to increase and become significant. N100
amplitude, likewise, did not differ between groups over the course of the
hospital stay.
P300 latency was significantly increased compared to the latency of the
control subjects (group by time interaction: F(6,114)=2.18, p<.05). The
post hoc comparisons tests indicated that the increase was statistically
significant only on treatment day 1 (figure 1). P300 amplitude did not
change over the course of the treatment period for the patient or control
group.
Visual Rare-Event-Monitoring Task
No significant differences between the patients and the control subjects for
reaction time and correctness were found. The mean for reaction time is
plotted in figure 2.
A significant treatment-day main effect was observed (F(6,96)=2.61, p>.02).
That is, reaction time increased for both groups over the hospital stay. This
increase is seen in figure 2. The percent correct detections in this task also
increased over time, but no differences were observed between groups on
this measure.
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FIGURE 1. P300 latency for the auditory rare-event-monitoring task
plotted as difference scores
*Significant difference between means using the Tukey (A) procedure.
FIGURE 2. Reaction times for the visual rare-event-monitoring task
plotted as difference scores
NOTE:
No significant differences were found on this task.
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Sternberg Memory Task
The Sternberg memory task was performed with two set sizes (two-letter
and four-letter memory load). The main effect for group factor was significant for reaction time (F(1,19)=4.591, p>.05). The means averaged over all
treatment days and experimental conditions are shown in figure 3.
FIGURE 3. Difference scores on the Sternberg memory task over test
sessions for each condition
NOTE:
In all comparisons, the differences between groups are significant.
The performance of the patients worsened over the course of treatment
compared to the control subjects. A significant time group by day by set
size by response type (in- or out-of-memory set) was also significant for
reaction time (F(6,114)=3.207, p>.01). The increased reaction time was
observed over all conditions for the patients. The controls were faster over
the hospital stay for all conditions except set size 2 when the probe letter
was not the letter to be remembered. The time courses to these effects are
plotted in figure 4 and figure 5. No significant changes were observed for
P300 amplitude or latency on this task.
Visual Motor-Tracking Task
Neither tracking measure, RMS error or Edge Violations, was altered over
the course of treatment.
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FIGURE 4.
Time course of the in-set reaction time difference scores on
the Sternberg memory task over test days
*Significant differences between means using the Tukey(A) procedure.
CONCLUSION
Specific cognitive decrements were observed when cocaine abusers abstained
from cocaine. The decrement occurred at two different stages in the stimulus information-processing chain. A delay in stimulus evaluation as judged
by P300 latency occurred on the first treatment day. The patients also had
slowed reaction time on the Sternberg memory task for as long as they
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FIGURE 5.
Time course of the out-of-set reaction time difference scores
on the Sternberg memory task over test days
*Significant differences between means using the Tukey(A) procedure.
were tested. The time course of other measures was similar for both the
patients and the control subjects. We did not test all aspects of cognition
or performance in this study. Although the tasks were simple and the
patients were not pushed to the limit of their performance capacity, deficits
during cocaine abstinence were clearly observed.
175
In the present investigation we demonstrated that P300 latency was longer
for abstinent cocaine abusers than for control subjects on the first treatment
day. This increase in latency cannot be attributed to the more direct effects
of stimulant drug administration. For example, acute intravenous and oral
doses of cocaine reduce P300 amplitude but do not change latency (Heming
et al. 1985). Methylphenidate decreases rather than increases P300 amplitude in drug nonusers (Brumaghim et al. 1987). One experimental manipulation that will produce delays in the P300 is the increase in stimulus
complexity, which suggests that cognitive evoked potential latency may be a
measure of stimulus evaluation time (Callaway 1983).
Persistent P300 latency delays can also be observed in dementia (Polich
et al. 1986) and may be related to poor stimulus processing. The delays of
P300 latency we observed appear to be more transient but may also reflect
both brain impairment and corresponding deficit stimulus processing.
The time of last cocaine use before admission was not consistent across all
patients. The time and the amount of cocaine use before admission needs
to be verified against plasma levels of cocaine and its metabolites. However, the increase in P300 latency was large and very significant in spite of
possible variability in time and amount.
The reaction-time delays observed in the Sternberg task might have been a
result of clinical depression. There is evidence that reaction time can be
delayed in depressed patients (Thier et al. 1986; Massiouri and Lesevre
1988), and depression appears to be observed with both cocaine abuse and
abstinence (Gawin and Kleber 1986).
We suggest that depression did not act as a confound in this study. Severe
depression was not observed in our patient group. First, only one patient
was clinically depressed at admission, and Beck depression test scores were
relatively low for the patient group during treatment. Second, both the patients and the control subjects differed on reaction time on the Sternberg
memory task, but not on the visual rate-event-monitoring task. Third, on
the Sternberg task there was a memory load; the subjects had to search recent memory before responding. No memory component was involved in
the visual rare-event monitoring task. Also, the subjects were more impaired on the four-letter rather than the two-letter set as would be expected
if short-term memory, instead of reaction time, was impaired.
The short-term memory deficit persisted over the period we tested the
patients, with no improvement over 3 or 4 weeks. The Paced Auditory
Addition Task used by Melamed and Bleiberg (1986) to evaluate cognition
in free-base abusers also required short-term memory, and they found that
performance deficits persisted over the 10 days of drug-free treatment.
They had no outpatient test session, as we had. We presume our subjects
used cocaine the day they came for the outpatient test, and on that day they
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seemed less impaired than when they first entered treatment. How long the
short-term memory deficit continues after the last dose of cocaine remains
unclear.
At least three major interpretations of the memory decrement during abstinence are possible. This preliminary study cannot conclusively support any
single explanation. The memory decrement may result from (1) a long-term
readjustment in several neurotransmitter systems, (2) an unmasking of a
residual functional neurological alteration produced by cocaine use, or
(3) an unmasking of a preexisting constitutional cognitive alteration in the
patients. Treatment of cocaine abusers with dopaminergic agonists such as
bromocriptine or antidepressant drugs has become popular as an attempt to
restore receptor balance, as well as to prevent the craving and depression
associated with cocaine abstinence. Although similar to the first explanation, residual neurological alterations of a reversible nature are based on
cocaine effects on plasma membranes and blood flow in the brain. Other
transmitter systems may be affected. Finally, 7 of 12 subjects had a
DSM-IIIR diagnosis of antisocial personality. We have reported that
aggressive adolescent males have sensory and cognitive alteration throughout
the auditory information-processing system (Heming et al. 1989). Abstinence from cocaine may unmask this deficit. Because not all subjects had
the antisocial personality diagnosis, we favor the second explanation-that
is, the memory decrement may be due to more generalized persistent functional neurophysiological alteration unmasked by cocaine abstinence. Such
a decrement in cognitive function may be a contributing factor in relapse.
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M.G. Does methylphenidate affect information processing? Findings
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Cerebral blood flow in chronic cocaine users: A study with positron
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Technical collaborative contributions were made by members of the TriServices Joint Working Group on Drug-Dependent Degradation in Military
Performance. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are
those of the authors and should not be construed as an official position of
the Joint Working Group.
AUTHORS
Ronald I. Heming, Ph.D.
Barbara J. Glover, R.N.
Bonnie Koeppl, M.S.
William Weddington, M.D.
Jerome H. Jaffe, M.D.
Cognitive Studies and Human Performance Laboratory
Addiction Research Center
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Baltimore, MD 21224
178
Abstinence Symptomatology and
Neuropsychological Impairment in
Chronic Cocaine Abusers
Stephanie S. O'Malley and Frank H. Gawin
INTRODUCTION
As recently as 1980, cocaine was believed to be a relatively safe nonaddicting drug (Gvinspoon and Bakalar 1980). The lessons of previous stimulant
epidemics in the 1890s, 1920s, 1950s and 1960s had been forgotten, and
new users were aware only of the short-term positive mood effects of
cocaine use. As a result, millions of people experimented with cocaine,
and, by 1986, approximately 3 million were estimated to abuse cocaine
regularly (Adams et al. 1986). Because the time period between initial
stimulant use and the development of dependence is 2 to 5 years (Gawin
and Kleber 1985), published reports of adverse consequences from cocaine
abuse did not appear for several years (Gawin and Ellinwood 1988).
Although a number of acute complications of stimulant abuse have been
identified (Gold et al. 1985; Creglar and Mark 1986), this chapter reviews
the evidence for adverse residual effects of cocaine use on affective and
neuropsychological functioning.
ABUSE PATTERNS AND NEUROADAPTATION
An examination of potential residual effects of cocaine requires that patterns
of abuse be considered. After initial experimentation and repeated episodes
of cocaine use with higher doses, a shift from controlled to uncontrolled
cocaine abuse takes place over the course of several years. Clinical consensus indicates that it is not until this shift has occurred that cocaine produces
noticeable clinical consequences (Seigel 1982; Gawin and Kleber 1985;
Ellinwood and Petrie 1977; Kleber and Gawin 1984).
The clinical hallmark of this shift is that use of cocaine in extended binges
develops, during which abusers become unable to cease use until all supplies are exhausted. During binges, cocaine addicts have no interest in sex,
179
nourishment, sleep, safety, survival, money, morality, loved ones, or responsibilities. After the binge, they frequently go for 1/2 day to 5 days without
any cocaine use (Gawin and Kleber 1986).
Abusers average one to three binges per week, lasting from 8 to 24 hours
each. During binges, cocaine boluses are readministered every 15 minutes
as users attempt to recreate the rush of cocaine euphoria (Seigel 1982;
Gawin and Kleber 1986). This means that repeated insults to the brain’s
homeostatic mechanisms take place. In this context, it is likely that adaptation to cocaine’s acute effects on mood takes place, with chronic clinical
consequences (Gawin and Ellinwood 1988, Gawin and Ellinwood 1989). In
addition, neuropsychological impairment may occur as a result of chronic
hyper- or hypostimulation of specific brain regions, or by hemodynamic
insults associated with cocaine use.
NEUROADAPTATION IN BRAIN REWARD SYSTEMS
Gross physiological withdrawal symptoms do not occur in cocaine dependence. Nonetheless, there is substantial consistency in the preclinical data
indicating that cocaine causes adaptation in brain systems that regulate
psychological processes. These data are fully reviewed and referenced else
where (Gawin and Ellinwood 1988). Briefly, chronic stimulant exposure in
animals causes subsensitivity of mesolimbic and mesocortical dopaminergic
projections in animals. These projections are involved in reward. This subsensitivity provides an apparent parallel to the reward subsensitivity described by cocaine abusers, which is clinically termed anhedonia. Further,
chronic cocaine administration produces multiple receptor alterations in these
same systems. These receptor alterations, the decreases in sensitivity of
reward systems, and the clinical withdrawal symptoms of anhedonia are all
reversed by treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. In addition, behavioral
depression after high-dose stimulants in animals parallels the time course for
withdrawal anhedonia in humans. Multiple alterations in neurotransmitter
concentrations, turnover, and metabolism also occur in animals and are paralleled by alterations in peripheral indices of central transmitter function in
humans.
These data have led to the hypothesis that cocaine produces a true “physiological” addiction as a consequence of chronic, high-dose use, but one
whose expression is “psychological.” The clinical description of these
psychological consequences is consistent among investigators (Gawin and
Ellinwood 1988; Seigel 1982; Ellinwood and Petrie 1977; Gawin and Kleber
1986), but the symptom displays are often subtle, requiring development of
precise instruments and methods for symptom assessment. Thus, the withdrawal consequences of cocaine have been only partially studied and verified by laboratory or hospital evaluations in humans.
180
ABSTINENCE SYMPTOMS
Gawin and Kleber (1986) have described a triphasic cocaine abstinence pattern that delineates the emotional consequences of long-term cocaine use.
This pattern includes crash, withdrawal, and extinction phases. Figure 1
outlines the phases of abstinence following a cocaine binge.
FIGURE 1. Phases following a cocaine binge
NOTE:
Duration and intensity of symptoms vary depending on binge characteristics and coexisting
psychiatric diagnoses.
SOURCE: Gawin and Kleber 1986 copyright 1986, American Medical Association.
Phase I: “Crash”
A “crash” of mood and energy immediately follows a cocaine binge.
Cocaine craving, depression, agitation, and anxiety intensify. Within 1 to
4 hours, cocaine craving is replaced by desire for sleep. Sedatives, opiates,
anxiolytics, or alcohol may be taken to induce sleep. Prolonged sleep may
be punctuated by massive eating episodes. Hypersomnolence can last several days, followed by mood normalization.
Clinical recovery from the crash is, in part, accomplished by sleep, nutrition, and replacement of neurotransmitters depleted by the prior binge.
Usual management is nutrition and rest, along with observation for possible
suicide. The crash is similar to the acute withdrawal of the alcohol
181
hangover, rather than chronic withdrawal, in that it is minimally associated
with cravings for the abused substance.
Crash symptoms resemble neurovegetative symptoms in major depression;
therefore, assessments for psychiatric disorders or severity of chronic abstinence symptoms are delayed until crash symptoms have abated. Generally,
sleep normalization and 1 to 3 days of confirmed abstinence assure that
acute postuse symptoms have ended (Gawin and Kleber 1986).
Phase II:
“Withdrawal”
A protracted dysphoric syndrome, including inactivity, listlessness, boredom,
and pleasurelessness (anhedonia) occurs 1 to 5 days following the crash.
These symptoms are less dramatic than the extreme depression during the
crash and were not recognized by early observers. They are not as unremitting or severe as major mood disorders, but this pleasureless existence
amplifies stimulant craving and leads to resumption of use. This withdrawal phase parallels withdrawal from other abused substances, except for
its lack of gross physiological changes.
Clinicians observe that anhedonic symptoms abate within 1 to 10 weeks of
sustained abstinence. Predisposing psychiatric disorders may prolong and
amplify these withdrawal symptoms.
Phase III:
“Extinction”
Months or even years after resolution of withdrawal, occasional periods of
“conditioned” cocaine craving can occur, lasting only hours. Conditioned
cocaine cravings result from objects or events (cues) that in the past had
been paired with cocaine intoxication and that evoke associations to cocaine
euphoria. Cues can be specific persons, locations, events, mild alcohol
intoxication, interpersonal conflicts, adverse mood states previously soothed
by cocaine, or the sight of objects linked to abuse (money, white powder,
glass pipes, mirrors, syringes, single-edged razor blades, among many
others) (Gawin and Ellinwood 1989). If the person does not yield to craving, the desire will abate; it diminishes on each subsequent exposure and
gradually becomes extinct.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT
The possibility that cocaine abuse may also result in cognitive dysfunction
is suggested by case reports of cocaine-induced intracranial hemorrhage and
cerebral vasculitis (Kaye and Fainstat 1987; Tuchman et al. 1987; Levine
et al. 1987). These vascular consequences are probably related to the
vasoconstrictor properties of cocaine, in which both cardiac output and
peripheral resistance are increased, resulting in transient hypertension.
Neuropsychological impairment may also result from overstimulation of
182
dopaminergic pathways and subsequent hypoexcitability of these areas when
cocaine administration is discontinued (Bauer 1989).
Research involving acute administration of cocaine and similar drugs (e.g.,
methylphenidate) suggests that cocaine’s actions on the central nervous
system (CNS) improve vigilance and motor functions (Fischman and Shuster
1980; Coons et al. 1981). Overstimulation of these functions with chronic
cocaine administration, however, may potentially result in disrupted attention
and impaired motor skills. Given that cocaine’s actions involve the mesolimbic system, it is also likely that memory may be affected as well.
Despite the potential clinical significance of this issue, there are few controlled studies of the neuropsychological consequences of chronic cocaine
use. In one study, O’Malley and colleagues (1988) compared 20 recently
abstinent cocaine abusers with 20 age- and education-matched controls using
the Wechsler Adult Category test, the Finger Oscillation test, and the
Neuropsychological Screening Battery (NSB) (Heaton et al., in press;
Franklin et al., in press). The cocaine abusers reported using, on average,
447.15 grams of cocaine over approximately 4 years. Their mean age and
educational level were 27.6 (SD=7.17) and 13.2 (SD=1.61) years, respectively. Individuals were excluded who had a history of intravenous drug
use, dependence on alcohol or drugs other than cocaine, significant head
trauma, developmental problems, major medical disorders, a psychotic illness, or current use of medications that might affect the CNS.
On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R), the cocaine
abusers scored significantly lower than controls on the arithmetic subtest
only. The results for the remaining neuropsychological measures are presented in table 1. As can be seen, cocaine abusers did worse on the
Symbol Digit Modalities test, a measure of verbal forgetting (Story
Memory), the Halstead Category test, and the summary score of the NSB.
Mean scores for the cocaine abusers on the Symbol Digit Modalities test
and the NSB summary measure were in the mild impairment range. These
findings suggest that recent abstinence from cocaine is associated with problems in concentration, memory, and nonverbal problem solving and abstracting ability. One unexpected finding was higher oral fluency scores for the
cocaine abusers. Perhaps the most striking result was that 50 percent of the
cocaine abusers scored in the impairment range on the NSB summary score,
in contrast to only 15 percent of the controls. Briefer periods of abstinence
were related to poorer arithmetic performance and tended to be associated
with greater impairment on the NSB summary measure and with more
errors on the Halstead Category test.
In a second study, O’Malley and associates (1989) continued to examine the
issue of residual effects of cocaine in a larger sample of cocaine abusers,
using a more extensive neuropsychological assessment battery. Although
183
TABLE 1. Cocaine abusers and normals compared on neuropsychological
measures
Measure
Impairment Indexa
Aural Comprehensionb
Commandsb
Oral Fluencyb
Written Fluencyb
Confrontation Namingb
Sentence Repetitionb
Trails Aa
Trails Ba
Symbol Digitb
Story Learningb
Story Memorya
Figure Copyb
Figure Learningb
Figure Memorya
Numerical Attention
Timeb
Errorsb
Reading Comprehensiona
Category Test Errorsb
Finger Tapping
Dominanta
Nondominanta
Cocaine Ss
SD
M
5.80
11.80
22.20
14.85
11.85
17.85
4.65
25.90
59.05
51.10
6.35
10.20
17.35
14.00
3.25
4.34
.41
2.09
5.07
3.56
2.06
.67
6.00
26.50
10.10
4.17
9.32
2.60
4.64
8.11
157.20 31.49
3.90 2.94
11.60
.68
40.60 22.74
53.90
48.70
6.59
7.34
Control Ss
M
SD
t
p
4.04
.57
1.49
2.85
3.71
.41
.41
9.68
23.76
11.17
3.25
6.14
2.58
2.94
6.71
2.34
64
-.17
2.84
-.57
-.08
-.85
1.53
1.19
-2.66
-.60
2.16
.61
-1.02
-.89
.02
.53
.86
.008
.56
.94
40
.14
.24
.01
.55
.04
.55
.31
.38
146.85 25.97
3.80
3.16
11.85
.49
25.80 15.90
1.12
.10
-1.33
-.08
.27
.92
.19
.94
-.99
-.54
.33
.59
2.70
11.70
22.30
11.15
12.50
17.90
4.80
22.00
49.55
65.05
7.06
4.80
16.85
15.25
5.35
55.76
49.83
4.43
5.80
a
Higher
scores indicate poorer performance.
b
Lower scores indicate poorer performancc.
NOTE:
There was no evidence of speech articulation problems in any of the cocaine or control
subjects. All subjects received a perfect score.
the first study was conducted with inpatients who were newly abstinent
(mean=23 days), this investigation studied 25 outpatients who had accrued
an average of 135 days of abstinence. The subjects were cocaine abusers
(mean age=28.4 years) who had been interviewed with the Schedule for
Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia as part of a diagnostic study. Based
on this interview, subjects with a lifetime or current history of drug or
184
alcohol abuse other than cocaine or stimulants were excluded from participating. The remaining exclusion criteria were similar to those used by
Adamse and colleagues (1988). Of the sample, 74 percent primarily
smoked free-base cocaine; the remainder were intranasal users. On average,
the sample had used a total of 522.7 grams of cocaine over 46.9 months.
They were predominantly male (60 percent) and Caucasian (60 percent),
with a mean educational level of 13.5 years (SD=1.7).
Cocaine abusers were compared with 25 age-, education-, sex-, and racematched normal controls using the extended Halstead-Reitan Battery (Reitan
1986). Tests comprising this battery include the WAIS—R, category test,
trail-making test, tactual performance test (TPT, time, memory, and location), rhythm test, speech-sounds perception, aphasia examination, sensory
perceptual examination, finger-tapping test, grip-strength dynamometer,
grooved pegboard test, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
Heaton’s adaptation of the Wechsler Memory scale was used to assess
learning and memory for verbal and figural information (Heaton et al.
1978).
For data analysis, the various neuropsychological tests were classified
according to the ability area tapped by the measure. The skill areas included measures of: (1) verbal skills, (2) abstraction and cognitive flexibility,
(3) complex psychomotor skills, (4) learning and incidental memory,
(5) memory, (6) attention and speed of information processing, (7) simple
motor skills, and (8) simple sensory skills. The tests comprising each
ability area are presented in table 2.
Multivariate analyses of variance were then used to compare the cocaine
abusers and controls on these eight areas and on a group of summary measures, including Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and the Average Impairment
Rating. The areas in which the cocaine abusers performed more poorly
than controls included complex cognitive motor skills, simple motor skills,
and the summary measures. When individual tests were examined, the
analyses revealed that the cocaine abusers performed more poorly on the
following tests of cognitive-motor and simple motor skills: spatial relations,
grooved pegboard, grip strength, and spatial relations. With regard to
memory, the cocaine abusers showed a deficit in retaining nonverbal material. None of the individual summary scores discriminated between the two
groups, although the multivariate analysis was significant. With the exception of grip strength and spatial relations, the cocaine abusers’ scores were
in the normal range on all tests.
ABSTINENCE AND RECOVERY OF FUNCTION
An extensive body of research on neuropsychological changes associated
with alcohol abuse suggests that significant cognitive impairment is evident
in recently detoxified alcoholics, but that slow recovery of function occurs
185
TABLE 2. Ability areas and specific neuropsychological tests used to
compare cocaine and normal subjects
Tests
Ability Area
Summary Measures
Verbal I.Q.; Performance I.Q.; Average
Impairment Rating
Verbal Skills
Vocabulary; Information; Comprehension;
Similarities; Aphasia Errors
Abstraction and Cognitive
Flexibility
Category Errors; Trail B
Attention and Speed of
Information Processing
Rhythm Test; Digit Span; Arithmetic;
Picture Completion; Speech Sounds
Learning and Incidental
Memory
Story Learning; Figure Memory;
TPT—Memory; TPT—Location
Memory
Story Memory; Figure Memory
Complex Psychomotor Skills
TPT—Minutes per block; Digit Symbol;
Picture Arrangement; Block Design;
Object Assembly; Spatial Relations
Simple Motor Skills
Finger Tapping; Grip Strength; Grooved
Pegboard
Simple Sensory
Perceptual Errors
with long-term abstinence (Grant 1987). The findings from our research
suggest that a similar process may conceivably occur with cocaine abuse.
In our study of recently abstinent cocaine abusers (O’Malley et al. 1988),
length of abstinence correlated with performance on tests that discriminated
cocaine abusers from normals. In addition, 50 percent of the cocaine
abusers were found to be in the mildly impaired range in contrast to
15 percent of controls. In contrast, when we studied a sample of cocaine
abusers who had been abstinent almost 4 months on average, their neuropsychological tests scores, although poorer than controls, were generally in
the normal range. The patterns of impairment noted in the two studies suggest that disruptions in attention may recover more rapidly and that motor
impairment may be more persistent.
The question of recoverability of function would be best addressed using a
longitudinal design in which subjects are tested shortly after achieving abstinence and at several intervals over time. In an initial examination of this
186
question, Cummings and associates (1988) tested a group of 30 male cocaine addicts upon admission to an inpatient unit and 2 weeks later with the
Peterson Short-Term Verbal Learning Test, the WAIS—R digit span, a
digit-symbol substitution test, and a choice-reaction-time test. Preliminary
results indicated that subjects’ performance improved from baseline on digits
backwards and on the 30-second trial of the Peterson Short-Term Learning
Test. The contribution of practice effects to this improvement cannot be
ruled out, however, in the absence of a control group. Using a different
methodology, Volkow and colleagues (1988) failed to End improvement in
cerebral blood-flow abnormalities when subjects were tested shortly after
admission to treatment and 10 days later. The time between testings in
both studies was relatively short and further research is needed to address
whether significant improvement would occur with extended abstinence.
REMAINING QUESTIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR
RESEARCH
Although our research reveals poorer performance by cocaine abusers, the
degree of impairment is not as striking as that seen with alcoholics. Before
minimizing the long-term effects of cocaine on cognitive functioning, however, a number of caveats should be made. First, it is important to note
that current studies of cocaine abusers have used relatively young subjects
who had abused cocaine for approximately 4 to 7 years on average. In
studies demonstrating cognitive dysfunction in alcoholics, subjects are generally older with longer histories of abuse (Parsons and Farr 1981). As the
population of long-term cocaine abusers increases, future research addressing
whether more significant changes result from extended periods of abuse will
be needed.
Perhaps a more important caution is that our samples of cocaine abusers
were highly selective and consisted of subjects whose only abused substance
was cocaine. This pattern of single-substance abuse is not typical of the
majority of drug abusers. Cocaine abusers are often dependent on alcohol.
Another subgroup combines cocaine and heroin in a “speedball” to produce
a more tempered high. The preliminary results of a large diagnostic study
of 300 treatment-seeking cocaine abusers (Rounsaville, personal communication) indicated that 61.7 percent met lifetime research diagnostic criteria for
alcohol abuse or dependence. Given that alcohol dependence has been
shown to be associated with substantial neuropsychological impairment, it is
likely that cocaine abusers who also abuse alcohol or other drugs may be at
particular risk for cognitive dysfunction. While studies of relatively “pure”
cocaine abusers allow clearer inferences about the role of cocaine in any
observed impairments, additional studies of cocaine abusers who also abuse
other substances are required.
Although the evidence for residual effects of cocaine on cognitive and emotional functioning is accruing, much of our knowledge remains anecdotal.
187
In addition, the time course and nature of recovery of cognitive functioning
following cocaine withdrawal can only be inferred from the current crosssectional studies. At this juncture, longitudinal studies are needed in which
abstinence symptomatology is assessed at specific time periods after cocaine
use is discontinued. In research on cognitive functioning, traditional neuropsychological test batteries could be augmented with tests concentrating on
specific areas hypothesized to be affected by cocaine. The existing research
suggests that processes involved with vigilance, memory, and motor functioning may be particularly important.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support was provided by National Institute on Drug Abuse Center grant
P50 04060 and DA 05348 and by the National Institute on Alcoholism and
Alcohol Abuse grant AA 07080.
AUTHORS
Stephanie S. O’Malley, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry
School of Medicine
Yale University
285 Orchard Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Frank H. Gawin, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry
University of California
Los Angeles, CA
190
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64 PHENCYCLIDINE: AN UPDATE. Doris H. Clouet, Ph.D., ed.
NTIS PB #89-131858/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01281-5 $6.50
194
65 WOMEN AND DRUGS: A NEW ERA FOR RESEARCH. Barbara A.
Ray, Ph.D., and Monique C. Braude, Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01283-1 $3.50
NTIS PB #89-130637/AS $23
66 GENETIC AND BIOLOGICAL MARKERS IN DRUG ABUSE AND
ALCOHOLISM. Monique C. Braude, Ph.D., and Helen M. Chao, Ph.D., eds.
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NTlS PB #89-134423/AS $23
68 STRATEGIES FOR RESEARCH ON THE INTERACTIONS OF DRUGS
OF ABUSE. Monique C. Braude, Ph.D., and Harold M. Ginzburg, M.D., J.D.,
eds.
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GPO Stock #017-024-01296-3 $6.50
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69 OPIOID PEPTIDES: MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. Rao S. Rapaka, Ph.D.;
Gene Bamett, Ph.D.; and Richard L. Hawks, Ph.D., eds.
NTlS PB #89-158422/AS $39
GPO Stock #017-024-1297-l $11
70 OPIOlD PEPTIDES: MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY, BIOSYNTHESIS, AND ANALYSIS. Rao S. Rapaka, Ph.D., and Richard L. Hawks, Ph.D.,
eds.
NTIS PB #89-158430/AS $45
GPO Stock #017-024-1298-0 $12
71 OPIATE RECEPTOR SUBTYPES AND BRAIN FUNCTION. Roger M.
Brown, Ph.D.; Doris H. Clouet, Ph.D.; and David P. Friedman, Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01303-0 $6
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72 RELAPSE AND RECOVERY IN DRUG ABUSE. Frank M. Tims, Ph.D.,
and Carl G. Leukefeld, D.S.W., eds.
NTIS PB #89-151963/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01302-l $6
73 URINE TESTING FOR DRUGS OF ABUSE. Richard L. Hawks, Ph.D.,
and C. Nora Chiang, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-151971/AS $23
GPO Stock #017-024-01313-7 $3.75
74 NEUROBIOLOGY OF BEHAVIORAL CONTROL IN DRUG ABUSE.
Stephen 1. Szara. M.D., D.Sc., ed.
NTIS PB #89-151989/AS $23
GPO Stock #017-024-1314-5 $3.75
75 PROGRESS IN OPIOID RESEARCH. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1986
INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS RESEARCH CONFERENCE. John W.
Holaday. Ph.D.; Ping-Yee Law, Ph.D.; and Albert Herz. M.D., eds.
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195
76 PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, 1986. PROCEEDINGS OF
THE 48TH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING, THE COMMITTEE ON
PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, INC. Louis S. Harris, Ph.D., ed.
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GPO Stock #017-024-01316-1 $16
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77 ADOLESCENT DRUG ABUSE: ANALYSES OF TREATMENT
RESEARCH. Elizabeth R. Rahdert, Ph.D., and John Grabowski, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-125488/AS $23
GPO Stock #017-024-01348-0 $4
78 THE ROLE OF NEUROPLASTICITY IN THE RESPONSE TO DRUGS.
David P. Friedman, Ph.D., and Doris H. Clouet, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #88-245683/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01330-7 $6
79 STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS OF THE CANNABINOIDS.
Rao S. Rapaka, Ph.D., and Alexandros Makriyannis, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-109201/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01331-5 $6
80 NEEDLE SHARING AMONG INTRAVENOUS DRUG ABUSERS:
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES. Robert J. Battjes,
D.S.W.. and Roy W. Pickens, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #88-236138/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-0134.5-5 $5.50
81 PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, 1987. PROCEEDINGS OF
THE 49TH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING, THE COMMITTEE ON
PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, INC. Louis S. Harris, Ph.D., ed.
NTIS PB #89-109227/AS
GPO Stock #017-024-01354-4 $17
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82 OPIOIDS IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS. Jacqueline F. McGinty, Ph.D., and
David P. Friedman, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #88-245691/AS $23
GPO Stock #017-024-01344-7 $4.25
83 HEALTH HAZARDS OF NITRITE INHALANTS. Harry W. Haverkos,
M.D., and John A. Dougherty, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-125496/AS $23
GPO Stock #017-024-01351-0 $3.25
84 LEARNING FACTORS IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE. Barbara A. Ray,
Ph.D., ed.
NTIS PB #89-125504/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01353-6 $6
85 EPIDEMIOLOGY OF INHALANT ABUSE: AN UPDATE. Raquel A.
Crider, Ph.D., and Beatrice A. Rouse, Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-123178/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01360-9 $5.50
86 COMPULSORY TREATMENT OF DRUG ABUSE: RESEARCH AND
CLINICAL PRACTICE. Carl G. Leukefeld, D.S.W., and Frank M. Tims,
Ph.D., eds.
NTIS PB #89-151997/AS $31
GPO Stock #017-024-01352-8 $7.50
196
87 OPIOID PEPTIDES: AN UPDATE. Rao S. Rapaka, Ph.D., and Bhola N.
Dhawan, M.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01366-8 $7
NTIS PB #89-158430/AS $45
88 MECHANISMS OF COCAINE ABUSE AND TOXICITY. Doris H.
Clouet, Ph.D.; Khursheed Asghar, Ph.D.; and Roger M. Brown, Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01359-5 $11
NTIS PB #89-125512/AS $39
89 BIOLOGICAL VULNERABILITY TO DRUG ABUSE. Roy W. Pickens,
Ph.D., and Dace S. Svikis, B.A., eds.
GPO Stock #017-022-01054-2 $5
NTIS PB #89-125520/AS $23
90 PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, 1988. PROCEEDINGS OF
THE SOTH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING. THE COMMITTEE ON
PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, INC. Louis S. Harris, Ph.D., ed.
GPO Stock #017-024-01362-5 $17
91 DRUGS IN THE WORKPLACE: RESEARCH AND EVALUATION
DATA. Steven W. Gost. Ph.D., and J. Michael Walsh, Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01384-6 $10
NTIS PB #90-147257/AS $39
92 TESTING FOR ABUSE LIABILITY OF DRUGS IN HUMANS.
Marian W. Fischman. Ph.D., and Nancy K. Mello, Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01379-0 $12
NTIS PB #90-148933/AS $45
93 AIDS AND INTRAVENOUS DRUG USE: FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR
COMMUNITY-BASED PREVENTION RESEARCH. C.G. Leukefeld, D.S.W.;
R.J. Battjes, D.S.W.; and Z. Amsel. Ph.D., eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01388-9 $10
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94 PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY OF AMPHETAMINE AND
RELATED DESIGNER DRUGS. Khursheed Asghar, Ph.D., and Errol
De Sousa, Ph.D.. eds.
GPO Stock #017-024-01386-2 $11
NTIS PB #90-148958/AS $39
IN PRESS:
95 PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, 1989. PROCEEDINGS OF
THE 51ST ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING. THE COMMITTEE ON
PROBLEMS OF DRUG DEPENDENCE, INC. Louis S. Harris, Ph.D., ed.
96 DRUGS OF ABUSE: CHEMISTRY, PHARMACOLOGY, IMMUNOLOGY, AND AIDS. Phuong Thi Kim Pham, Ph.D., and Kenner Rice, Ph.D.,
eds.
97 NEUROBIOLOGY OF DRUG ABUSE: LEARNING AND MEMORY.
Lynda Erinoff, ed.
98 THE COLLECTION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA FROM
HIDDEN POPULATIONS. Elizabeth Y. Lambert, M.S.. ed.
197
99 RESEARCH FINDINGS ON SMOKING OF ABUSED SUBSTANCES.
C. Nora Chiang, Ph.D., and Richard L. Hawks, Ph.D., eds.
100 DRUGS IN THE WORKPLACE: RESEARCH AND EVALUATION
DATA. VOL. II. Steven W. Gost, Ph.D., and J. Michael Walsh, Ph.D., eds.
101 RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF ABUSED DRUGS ON BEHAVIOR. John W.
Spencer, Ph.D., and John J. Boren, Ph.D., eds.
102 ANABOLIC STEROID ABUSE. Geraline C. Lin, Ph.D., Lynda Erinoff,
Ph.D., eds.
103 DRUGS AND VIOLENCE: CAUSES, CORRELATES, AND CONSEQUENCES. Mario De La Rosa, Ph.D.; Elizabeth Y. Lambert, M.S.; and
Bernard Gropper, Ph.D., eds.
198
DHHS Publication No. (ADM)91-1719
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration
Printed 1990