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Prevalence and treatment of substance abuse in the mentally retarded population: an empirical review.

This article presents the first comprehensive review of studies of alcohol and illicit substance use in mentally retarded individuals, including prevalence, and recommendations for assessment and treatment. Mentally retarded persons appear to use/abuse alcohol at about the same rate as their noncognitively-impaired counterparts, and illicit drugs at moderately lower rates. However, little is known regarding which assessments and interventions are most effective in this population, given the absence of published treatment outcome studies and case examples. This is particularly disconcerting as detrimental consequences resulting from substance use have been identified in mentally retarded samples. Anecdotal data suggests that treatment for these individuals require modifications of existing empirically-derived substance abuse interventions to accommodate their unique needs.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The relationship of neuropsychological functioning to measures of substance use in an adolescent drug abusing sample.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between recent and long term substance use on adolescents' neuropsychological functioning. Subjects were 77 adolescents who were referred for outpatient treatment for drug and conduct problems. Subjects were administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-III, structured interviews to assess substance use, and urine tests. Subjects were divided into neuropsychologically impaired and nonimpaired groups. Results indicated no significant group differences for: self-reports of lifetime use of alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs; self or collateral reports of recent (past 30 days) use of alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs; or urinalysis detection of alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs. Correlations between these dependent measures of substance use and neuropsychological functioning were also nonsignificant (all ps > .05). Although neuropsychological impairment was observed for some subjects in this sample, it was unrelated to their cannabis, hard drug, or alcohol use. These results are consistent with those found in the adult literature, given the relatively short period of time that these youth have used such substances. However, given the severity of their absolute levels of substance usage, they may be at greater risk for developing future neuropsychological problems, related directly to the ingestion of alcohol and illicit drugs, and to their secondary effects (e.g., head traumas, malnutrition).

Adolescent↗