Recommendations for health care professionals to improve compliance and treatment outcome among patients with cognitive deficits.

A significant body of research demonstrates that alcoholics and drug addicts presenting for treatment have poor attention and concentration, memory, abstraction, and problem-solving skills even after a significant detoxification period. Such deficits result in poor understanding of medical and psychological treatment recommendations, which is likely to decrease treatment compliance. Although psychological test results are frequently available, many health care professionals are unfamiliar with the implications of deficits signaled by test scores. Even when such testing is available, reports often fail to recommend interventions for improving treatment understanding and compliance. The present study reviewed the cognitive testing of 206 male veterans admitted to the Substance Abuse Treatment Center. Descriptive data, along with implications for real-world tasks, are presented. Specific recommendations for providing treatment to patients with vocabulary, abstraction, and memory difficulties are made. With this information, health care professionals who receive testing reports will be better able to relate testing information to patient behavior and to provide efficacious treatment.