Introduction:

It is important to consider the damage that the consumption of psychoactive substances produces to the brain, in order to understand the prognosis and evolution of the patient, since it can cause cognitive impairment and reach dementia.

Objective:

To determine the prognostic factors of cognitive impairment in patients addicted to psychoactive substances.

Methods:

An observational, analytical and cross-sectional study was developed. We worked with patients treated for substance use, in a psychology service, from 2016 to 2019. The variables studied were: executive function, age, suicidal ideation, sex, clinical characteristics of consumption, substance consumed, intelligence quotient, cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression and time of consumption. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used.

Results:

257 patients were studied, with consumption mainly of alcohol and marijuana, average age of 34 years, predominantly male (89%) and an average of 17 years of consumption. 47% of the patients had mild cognitive impairment and 9.34% had moderate cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment was associated with having inverted tolerance (odd ratio OR= 6.4), executive dysfunction (OR= 4.2), depression (OR= 4.1), anxiety (OR= 2.4), consuming substances other than alcohol (OR= 2.6), having subjective need for consumption (OR= 2.5), altered abstinence capacity (OR= 2.3) and suicidal ideation (OR= 2.0).

Conclusions:

The prognostic factors of cognitive impairment in addicted patients are: inverted tolerance, executive alterations, depression, anxiety, consuming drugs other than alcohol, having altered abstinence capacity and presenting suicidal ideation.

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