Tool to Assess Cognitive Dysfunction in Opioid-dependent Patients

New simple, and effective assessment tool helps quantify the risk of cognitive dysfunction in drug treatment programs for opioid-dependent patients as per a study at the Department of Allied Health Sciences, the University of Connecticut, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The team has been studying drug treatment interventions and HIV prevention among people who use drugs for years. It was found that as many as 60% of participants were suffering from cognitive dysfunction, or deficits in things like attention and short-term memory.

Moreover, the assessment of cognitive dysfunction generally requires long and complex tools. To overcome these challenges, the study team developed a simple, effective assessment tool to determine risk factors for cognitive dysfunction among opioid-dependent persons in drug treatment programs.

Simple Assessment tool

Two standard assessments were addressed for cognitive impairment – the Brief Inventory of Neuro-Cognitive Impairment (BINI) and the NIH Toolbox, which is regarded as the gold standard of cognitive dysfunction assessments.

Factors like age above 50 years, history of psychiatric diagnosis, and drug overdose were identified as correlates for cognitive dysfunction. The new assessment requires only little training to administer and it can even be done virtually.

“We hope that by piloting it in this kind of setting it will be easily translatable to similar programs throughout the U.S. and international settings,” ichael Copenhaver, a researcher in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources.

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Source-Medindia