Learning functions in short-term cocaine users.

Objective: This study examined learning functions in short-term cocaine users and control participants.

Method: Seventeen active cocaine users (reporting 3.5 mean years of cocaine use) and seventeen non-cocaine-using controls (with similar reported levels of alcohol and marijuana use) were compared on tasks measuring different aspects of learning.

Self-reported attention and mood symptoms in cocaine abusers: relationship to neurocognitive performance.

Objective: This study examined the relationship between subjective measures of inattention/hyperactivity-impulsivity and mood and objective measures of neurocognitive function in cocaine users.

Design: Ninety-four active cocaine users not seeking treatment (73 male, 21 female) were administered two self-report psychiatric measures (the ADHD Rating Scale - Fourth Edition; ARS-IV), and the Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition; (BDI-II), and a battery of tests measuring attention, executive, psychomotor, visual and verbal learning, visuospatial, and language functions. Correlations between scores on the psychiatric measures (total and subscale) and the neurocognitive measures were examined.

A decrement in probabilistic category learning in cocaine users after controlling for marijuana and alcohol use.

Aspects of stimulus-response (S-R) learning, mediated by striatal dopamine signaling, have been found to be altered in cocaine users relative to healthy controls. However, the influence of cocaine users' marijuana and alcohol use has not been accounted for. This study evaluated S-R learning and other neurocognitive functions in cocaine users while controlling for the relative influences of marijuana and alcohol use.