Impaired executive function

Von Geusau NA, Stalenhoef P, Huizinga M, Snel J, Ridderinkhof KR. Impaired executive function in male MDMA ( ecstasy ) users. Psychopharmacology 2004 175 331 11. 

Cognitive deficits Attentional impairment, memory dysfunction, impaired executive functions... 

Cognitive Memory loss (poor recall and losing items) aphasia (circumlocution and anomia) apraxia agnosia disorientation (impaired perception of time and unable to recognize familiar people) impaired executive function... 

Impaired executive function Mean PbB = 6.5 80% <10(xg/dl - Chapters this book, e.g., recent studies summarized... 

Dementia is the loss of function in multiple cognitive domains that occurs over a longer period of time, usually months to years. Diagnostic features include memory impairment and at least one of the following aphasia (deterioration of speech), apraxia (impaired ability to execute motor activities despite intact motor abilities, sensory function, and comprehension of the required task), agnosia (failure to recognize or identify objects despite intact sensory function), or disturbances in executive functioning.1... 

Cognitive dysfunction is another symptom category that includes impaired attention, working memory, and executive function. 

Executive functions Impaired insight, judgement, planning... 

Neuropsychological impairments in mood disorders, particularly those of working memory and executive function, are the most convincing and objective demonstrations of an impairment of consciousness. Since these impairments do not correlate with the severity of the mood disturbance and persist upon recovery they are not simply epiphenomena of the mood disturbance but rather may index trait pathology in susceptible individuals. It has previously been argued that mood disturbance and neuropsychological impairment may result from disturbances in two different neurochemical systems, the serotonin (5-HT) system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, between which there is a close interaction (McAllister-Williams et al., 1998). 

Tryptophan depletion in healthy volunteers impairs the retrieval of learnt material (Park et al., 1994), an effect probably mediated through a selective impairment of episodic memory consolidation (Riedel et al., 1999 Schmitt et al., 2000). However, tryptophan depletion appears to have no effect on working memory (Riedel et al., 1999) and either no effect or an enhancement of tests of executive function (Park et al., 1994 Schmitt et al., 2000). Thus the abnormality in episodic memory in mood disorders could conceivably be related to an impairment in the 5-HT system, but such an impairment is unlikely to account for the abnormalities in working memory and executive function. Clearly then, changes in consciousness occurring in affective disorders are unlikely to be explainable on the basis of an abnormality in a single neurochemical system. 

Motor, executive functions Slower saccades. Some impairment, especially in complex tasks No effect... 

Recently, two studies have examined the residual effects of long-term marijuana use.224,225 In both studies, marijuana smokers were abstinent for 28 days during which time a battery of neuropsychological tests was repeatedly administered. Daily, chronic smokers were compared to less frequent smokers. Bolla et al.224 reported that daily smokers were impaired on tests of memory, executive functioning, and psychomotor skills after 28 days of marijuana abstinence. In contrast,... 

Some degree of spellbinding is characteristic of any compromise of frontal lobe function. Beer et al. (2006) noted that orbitofrontal damage is associated with objective inappropriate social behavior. The patients were aware of social norms of intimacy but they were unaware that their task performances violated these norms. The authors call this an impairment of self-monitoring and self-insight. Bach and David (2006) pointed out that self-awareness deficits are very common in patients with traumatic brain injury and key to the development of behavior disturbances Our research found that lack of social self-awareness predicts behavioural disturbance in acquired and traumatic brain injury independent of cognitive and executive function. ... 

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