Demographic Effects on the Trail Making Test in Marijuana 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 marijuana 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 marijuana abusers' scores available for analysis were 259. 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 marijuana abusers. The variables of age and education level were statistically significantly related to TMT parts A and B, and ethnicity was statistically significant for part H of the TMT. R-Square values for overall models were moderate (A =. 15, B -.18) suggesting that demographic effects on the TMT are weak.

Key Words:

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