Cocaine Users Differ from Normals on Cognitive Tasks Which Show Poorer Performance During Drug Abstinence

Seventeen non-treatment seeking cocaine-dependent individuals participated in three-week longitudinal inpatient studies of cognitive changes during drug use and abstinence. Protocols included three days drug-free baseline, three days cocaine self-administration, and two weeks complete abstinence. A repeatable cognitive battery showed attention and delayed verbal recognition memory but not working memory to be impaired in cocaine users compared to age- and sex-matched normative values. Attention was significantly poorer during the first and second week of abstinence compared to days on which cocaine was used suggesting that certain cocaine-induced impairments may be acutely normalized by cocaine use, but resurface during abstinence.