A recent study has stated that the habit of consuming four or more alcohol drinks a day or using marijuana, cocaine, opioids, sedatives and tranquilisers, may cause deficits in attention and will lead to impairments in mental skills in both men and women. Frequent binge drinking is also linked to a lower score on executive functioning scale. The study was published online in the journal Addiction.
"Regardless if cognitive impairments precede substance use or vice versa, poorer cognitive functioning negatively impacts daily life and may cause lack of insight into one's substance use as a source of problems, impeding treatment utilisation or decreasing the likelihood of effective treatment," said Deborah Hasin, Professor at the Columbia University Medical Centre (CUMC).
Poorer attention was linked with frequent and infrequent binge drinking and use of drugs, in particular, stimulants.
This may also affect one's ability to function well in important interpersonal or occupational areas such as limiting the thought process and the ability to multi-task, the researchers said.
The team analysed data from 36,085 respondents to create two cognitive scales based on dimensionality and reliability.
Hasin has said that complete abstinence or reduced substance use may lead to gradual improvement in cognition.
(With IANS Inputs)
