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Relationship between drug use and prefrontal‐associated traits
Author(s) -
SPINELLA MARCELLO
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
addiction biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.445
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1369-1600
pISSN - 1355-6215
DOI - 10.1080/1355621031000069909
Subject(s) - polysubstance dependence , prefrontal cortex , disinhibition , psychology , addiction , clinical psychology , cannabis , psychiatry , cognition , substance abuse , developmental psychology
The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in the strategic and emotional regulation of behavior. Both cognitive and neuroimaging studies have implicated prefrontal cortex in processes of reward and addiction. Prefrontal‐associated neurobehavioral traits may be measured psychometrically with the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), so it was hypothesized that self‐ratings on this instrument would correlate with parameters of psychoactive drug use in a community sample. Modest but significant correlations were found for various parameters of tobacco use, even after controlling for demographic variables. Significant differences were noted in the mean scores when non‐users were compared with users of cannabis, major stimulants (e.g. cocaine, amphetamine), and dissociative hallucinogens (e.g. phencyclidine, ketamine) and polysubstance use, particularly with the Disinhibition subscale. Smokers rated greater dysfunction than non‐smokers on all three subscales, with ex‐smokers showing intermediate ratings between the two. Polysubstance users showed greater dysfunction on the Disinhibition subscale compared to non‐polysubstance users. In summary, this study further supports a relationship between prefrontal dysfunction and drug use in normal individuals, convergently with other methodologies for studying addiction.