[Decision-making in drug-dependent patients]

The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that certain body signals guide decision-making processes in an adaptive direction. To see the influence of these markers on decision-making we used the Iowa Gambling Task, through which several studies have shown impaired decision-making in drug-dependent patients.

To assess the performance of a sample of drug-dependent patients in a task that is sensitive to the measurement of decision-making process, so as to see whether there are significant alterations, and to compare the performance of these patients with that of non-users (in the normal and inverted versions).

The sample consisted of 66 people (33 addicts and 33 control participants). We used a semi-structured interview on socio-demographic variables and two versions of the "Cartas" task, a computerised version of the Iowa Gambling Task. Result. Significant differences were found between the control and experimental groups in execution of the normal task, but not of the inverted version. In total, 75.76% of the drug-dependent patients showed impaired task performance, as against 24.24% who performed it correctly.

The results indicate the presence of alterations in the decision-making processes of drug-dependent patients, who did not perform as well as the control group. This may be due to difficulty in generating somatic states according to possible future consequences (myopia about the future) in patients addicted to drugs.