Methamphetamine Use And Cognitive Impairment

Causes of Cognitive Impairment

Discuss About The Methamphetamine Use And Cognitive Impairment.

Cognitive impairment is highly associated with increased risk of disabilities and high rate of mortality. it has been of public interest due to its increased medical cost and the related disorders that gradually develop for example dementia (Plassman et al, 2008). Its major causes being tumors, stroke, exposure to toxins that affects the central nervous system and infections, it is as a result of brain injuries. For instance, the chronic use of methamphetamine has shown serious effects on the brain and the heart and decreasing the ability to concentrate and development of suicidal behaviors (Darke et al, 2008). The Methamphetamine is an addictive drug that stimulant the brain and highly affects the central nervous system. Methamphetamine that is in form of crystal, commonly referred as “ice”, is highly abused. The “ice” is mostly used for recreational purposes. In this context recreational use is where the drug is used for pleasure rather than medical use. In its crystalline structure, it is used through smoking and injections and it is highly preferred due to its high potency and therefore has high impact on the brain. It creates a sense of confidence and happiness that highly motivate the user to continuously use it. However, in this recreational use one is not a frequent user as compared to an addicted user. Frequent use of the methamphetamine which indicates addiction leads to change in behavior. For example, it leads to reduced appetite, operations, increased risk of depression as well as reduced concentration level and increased suicidal thoughts (Scott et al, 2007). All these behavior changes are symptoms of cognitive impairment.

Cognitive impairment ranges from mild, moderate and severe impairment. In the mild cognitive impairment, there is increased tendency of forgetting and decreased work performance. Here there is decline in memory function and one tend to change in behavior. In the moderate cognitive impairment, there is increased difficulties in concentrating, it becomes difficult to perform simple arithmetic, one tends to forget most recent events and there is development of withdrawal, moody and depression behaviors. In the severe cognitive impairment, there is total memory loss and one tend to forget the name of the closest relatives and cannot make decisions. As according to Centre for Disease control and Prevention, one is termed cognitively impaired when the ability to remember, understand new things, concentrate and make decisions on everyday matters is affected. The early diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment helps to development of complications associated with the impairment. This also help to save life.

Recreational use of Methamphetamine and Cognitive Impairment

Cognition which is the process of knowing or the mental processes of acquiring knowledge by understanding through thoughts, experiences and senses, differs in people.  The cognitive processes such as attention, perception, memory, language, learning and reasoning are highly triggered by stimulus in the environment. The cognitive processes are affected depending with the part of the brain that is affected. The methamphetamine or “ice” use has led to cognitive deficit. It negatively affects an individual attention, concentration, learning ability and decision making (Hart, Marvin, Silver and Smith, 2012). The methamphetamine affects the production of dopamine in the brain. This is a chemical in the brain that is responsible for emotions, ability to sense pain and pleasure and also movement. As stated by Volkow et al (2010), high levels of dopamine in the brain leads to development of psychotic symptoms which eventually leads to cognitive impairment. This essay will evaluate using several experimental researches the effect of recreational use of the methamphetamine on cognitive impairment.

As observed in a study conducted by Luo et al (2018) whereby the aim of the study was to understand the effects of the methamphetamine on the visuospatial ability and spatial orientation ability, 40 MA users and 40 non- MA users participated. The simple Reaction task (task 1), the spatial orientation task (task 2) and mental rotation tasks (task 3) were conducted on the participants. For inclusion to the study, the MA users should have been abstained from the drug for the last 14 days, urine was screened to determine the level of drug use and it should be negative and had no history of other drug abuse (alcohol, cocaine and cannabis). The non- MA users also had to meet these criteria. In the task 1, the participants were asked to focus on the center of a computer monitor and press the mouse key as accurate and quickly as possible, in task 2, the participants were asked to focus on a fixational cross” +” at the center of the monitor and press the mouse key as fast as possible according to the direction of the finger or toe.In task 3, the task 2 was done but in the direction of hand or foot. It was found that MA abuse had no significant cause of deficit in the general attention or motor ability while it induces deficit in spatial orientation and visuospatial ability which is related to the duration of MA use. The results were statistically significant. The prolonged use of the drug had effect on the ability to perceive and interact with the environment ( Nordahl, Salo and Leamon, 2003).  The visuospatial ability which was low on the participant who had used the MA for a long time indicated that the neuro transmitters had been chronically affected. The strength of this study was that the participants were screened for other drug use which could have affected the result of the cognitive impairment. Management, the study had a weakness where it did not consider other factors such as age and demographics and occupation which could highly contribute to the cognitive impairment. The limitation of this study was that the many MA users had used other drugs in their life time which could have significantly contributed to the cognitive impairment identified.

Cognitive Impairment and Methamphetamine Addiction

In a study performed by Henry, Minassian and Perry (2010), the aim of the study was to assess the effect of methamphetamine dependence on everyday functioning. 15 abstinent MA users and 15 non-MA users participated in the study. the Performance-Based Skills Assessment (UPAS-2) and the Psychopathology and executive function was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Winsconsin card Sorting Task. It was found that the MA dependent participants had significant impairment on finance, transportation, communication and medication management compared to the drug free participants. The results were statistically significant. The inability to manage the everyday activity is an impairment that is highly contributed by the MA since it heightens the risk of negative health, psychological and social outcomes (Sommers, Baskin and Baskin-sommers, 2006). The strength of this study was that the use of participant who had previously used the drug indicates that the impact of the drug is irreversible and it is a lifetime impact if not treated in its early stages. The weakness of the study is that it used a small sample size that may make the result incredible. However, the limitations of the study are that the screening for other drug use was not done since other drug abuse plays a big role in cognitive impairment.

In a study conducted by Wang et al (2013) where the objective was to investigate the effect of length of abstinence on decision-makingand emotional state in METH-addicted individuals. A lowa gambling task (IGT) to assess depression and anxiety was administered to participants who had abstained from the methamphetamine use for 6 days (n?=?37), 14 days (n?=?33), 1 month (n?=?31), 3 months (n?=?30), 6 months (n?=?26), or 1 year (n?=?30) and 39 healthy subjects. The participants were asked to answer questionnaires on the episodes of depression and anxiety behaviors. For decision making, the participants were asked to collected as many cards as possible to win money. They were to decide on the appropriate card and select as many as they could. It was found that the participants who had abstained for longer period indicated better decision-making ability than those who had abstained for shorter periods. The level of craving reduced with the duration of abstinence. The strength of the study was that a large sample was used and this gives the study credibility. its weakness is that the use of other drugs before rehabilitation was not consider which could contribute to the decision-making ability even after a longer abstinence period. The study was limited in the fact that some of the participants who were METH- depended were still under treatment whereby the drug used in their treatment could contribute to cognitive impairment. The results were statistically significant. The study indicates that the use of methamphetamine highly affects the cognitive process of reasoning and decision making.

Experimental Studies on Methamphetamine-Induced Cognitive Impairment

From the studies,the results are consistent with other researches that indicates that the use of methamphetamine has a negative impact on the cognitive process. The methodology used in the studies are related where participants who had used the methamphetamine were compared to those who had never used. this gives the studies credibility.

Conclusively, as evident from the studies done, the recreational use of methamphetamine highly leads to cognitive impairment. It reduces an individual attention, visuospatial ability, decision making ability and affects a person’s everyday activity. It is also evident that the drugs are highly abused by the adolescents and youths. Therefore, policy makers should ensure that the illegal drugs are restricted from use to protect people from these cognitive impairment related consequences especially death.

References

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Hart, C. L., Marvin, C. B., Silver, R., & Smith, E. E. (2012). Is cognitive functioning impaired in methamphetamine users? A critical review. Neuropsychopharmacology, 37(3), 586.

Henry, B. L., Minassian, A., & Perry, W. (2010). Effect of methamphetamine dependence on everyday functional ability. Addictive behaviors, 35(6), 593-598.

Luo, Y. L., Bian, J. W., Zheng, Z. J., Zhao, L., Han, S., Sun, X. H., … & Ni, G. X. (2018). Effects of methamphetamine abuse on spatial cognitive function. Scientific reports, 8(1), 5502.

Nordahl, T. E., Salo, R., &Leamon, M. (2003). Neuropsychological effects of chronic methamphetamine use on neurotransmitters and cognition: a review. The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 15(3), 317-325.

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Sommers, I., Baskin, D., & Baskin-Sommers, A. (2006). Methamphetamine use among young adults: health and social consequences. Addictive behaviors, 31(8), 1469-1476.

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Wang, G., Shi, J., Chen, N., Xu, L., Li, J., Li, P., … & Lu, L. (2013). Effects of length of abstinence on decision-making and craving in methamphetamine abusers. PloS one, 8(7), e68791.