Distinct cognitive performance and patterns of drug use among early and late onset cocaine users

Adolescence is a crucial period for neurodevelopment, but few studies have investigated the impact of early cocaine use on cognitive performance and patterns of substance use.

We evaluated 103 cocaine dependent inpatients divided in two groups: early-onset users (EOG; n=52), late-onset users (LOG; n=51), and 63 healthy controls. Neuropsychological functioning was evaluated using Digits Forward (DF) and Backward (DB), Trail Making Test (TMT), Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT), Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and Iowa Gambling Test (IGT). Use of alcohol and other drugs was assessed with the Addiction Severity Index (ASI-6).

Analyses of covariance controlling for age, IQ and years of education showed that EOG presented worse performance in attention span (DF, p=0.020), working memory (DB, p=0.001), sustained attention (WCST, p=0.030), declarative memory (ROCFT, p=0.031) and general executive functioning (FAB, p=0.003) when compared with the control group. LOG presented impairments on divided attention (TMT, p=0.003) and general executive functioning (FAB, p=0.001) in relation to the control group. EOG presented higher use of cannabis and alcohol than LOG (p≤0.001).

Early-onset cocaine users display more pronounced neuropsychological alterations than controls, as well as a greater frequency of polydrug consumption than LOG. The prominent cognitive deficits in EOG probably reflect the deleterious interference of cocaine use with early stages of neurodevelopment. This may be related to more severe clinical characteristics of substance disorder in this subgroup, including polysubstance abuse.