AUTHOR=Kexel Ann-Kathrin , Vonmoos Matthias , Preller Katrin H. , Hulka Lea M. , Seifritz Erich , Quednow Boris B. 

TITLE=Social and Non-Social Cognitive Enhancement in Cocaine Users—A Closer Look on Enhancement Motives for Cocaine Consumption

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00618

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00618

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Background: Cognitive disturbances of chronic cocaine users (CU) have been repeatedly investigated. However, it is yet unknown how CU using cocaine for cognitive or social enhancement differ from stimulant-naïve controls and CU that do not have these motives. More precisely, we assumed that CU with an enhancement motive self-medicate deficits in specific cognitive abilities, i.e., they use cocaine to enhance their performance in either social (social motive) or non-social cognitive situations (cognitive motive).

Methods: Forty-two CU were categorized according to their motives for cocaine consumption into social and non-social motive groups as well as cognitive and non-cognitive motive groups, respectively. Subsequently, CU motive groups were compared to 48 stimulant-naïve controls in their social and non-social cognitive functioning applying a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery.

Results: The social motive group showed deficits in cognitive empathy compared to controls (Cohen’s d=0.65) and the non-social motive group (d=0.60). No mentionable effects were found for emotional empathy and Theory-of-Mind. Cognitive and non-cognitive motive groups both showed general cognitive deficits but with different patterns of impairments compared to controls: the cognitive motive group had deficits mainly in working memory (d=0.84) and declarative memory (d=0.60), whereas the non-cognitive motive group also had deficits in working memory (d=0.61) but additionally in executive functions (d=0.67). For the domains declarative memory and executive functions, the respective other CU group displayed intermediate performance.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that cocaine is partially instrumentalized by CU with specific enhancement motives to counteract related cognitive impairments.