ATTENTIONAL, EXECUTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES IN ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH NON-PATHOLOGICAL SUBSTANCE USE

GÓMEZ, PABLO GUILLERMO; RUBINSTEIN, WANDA YANINA

Córdoba

Encuentro; IX INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF THE LATIN AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ON ALCOHOLISM (LASBRA); 2019

Latin American Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism

Executive functions and attention are some of the capacities that are compromised in chronic alcohol dependence and substance abuse in adults (Uekermann & Daum, 2008; Crews & Boettiger, 2009). Changes in the brains of adolescent consumers can increase vulnerability to the neural effects of such substances (Clark, Thatcher & Tapert, 2008), hampering key cognitive development processes (Chanraud et al., 2007). The effects of sporadic consumption on executive functioning are not widely valued and reported. The ob-jective of this work is search for differences in measures of executive functioning among those examined with different levels of non-pathological substance use. The consumption of alcohol and marijuana will be especially examined because are substances of greater prevalence. We evaluated 45 adolescents and young adults with university studies, without antecedents of problematic consumption or psychiatric history, with the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) and the Prefrontal Symptom Inventory (IPS) to assess disexecu-tive symptomatology; and The Marijuana Screening Inventory (MSI-X) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to relieve substance use The partial and total IPS?s scores correlated positively and significantly with the partial and total DEX?s scores, demonstrating convergent validity. The 78% of those examined were classified in the low-risk group by CITDCA and MSI-X. Positive correlations were presented between the CITDCA scores and the MSI-X. The MSI-X scores correlate with the IPS social behavior problem index. Those examined with higher score in the MSI-X show higher levels of emotional problems (t = 2.391; p = .022) and higher total IPS score (t = 2.247; p = .030), as well as a higher level of disorganization/apathy (t = 2.038; p = .006) and higher total score on the DEX (t = 2.213; p = .033). Those examined with higher score in the CITDCA have higher levels of social problems (t = 2.452; p = .020) and emotional problems (t = 2.219; p = .033) in the IPS. Even the non-problematic consumption of alcohol and marijuana could lead to attentional, executive, emotional and social differences in young and young adults of university population, with greater difficulties on those with more substance use.