Drug-abusers find it difficult to identify negative emotions

Scientists at the University of Granada have found that drug-abusers have difficulty in identifying negative emotions by their facial expression: wrath, disgust, fear and sadness.

Further, regular abuse of alcohol, cannabis and cocaine usually affects abusers’ fluency and decision-making. Consuming cannabis and cocaine negatively affects work memory and reasoning. Similarly, cocaine abuse is associated to alterations in inhibition.

For the purpose of this study, researchers carried out a neuropsychological evaluation out of a total of 123 polysubstance abusers and 67 no-drug users with similar social and demographical variables (age and schooling).

The target population were individuals who consumed drugs as cocaine, cannabis, heroin, alcohol, MDMA and methamphetamine, and who were enrolled in two rehabilitation projects Proyecto Hombre and Cortijo Buenos Aires in the province of Granada.

The main author of this research was Maria Jose Fernandez Serrano

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