Demographic Effects on the Trail Making Test in Amphetamine Abusers

Abstract

Demographic effects on the Trail Making Test (TMT), a test often used for screening for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of amphetamine abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A sample was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993, in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. The number of amphetamine abusers scores available for analysis were 185. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of sex, ethnicity, age, and education variables on the two parts of the TMT in this large treatment sample of amphetamine abusers. No variables were statistically significant for either parts A and B of the TMT. R-square values for overall models were also negligible (A =. 03. B =. 08) suggesting that demographic effects on the TMT account for a minuscule amount of overall variance in terms of amphetamine abusers' TMT performance.

Key Words:

• Amphetamine
• Substance abuse treatment
• Trail Making Test
• Demographic effects