Neuropsychological Assessment of Executive Dysfunction in Drug-induced Psychosis

Neuropsychological assessment is a performance-based method that is used to examine the cognitive consequences of brain damage, brain disease, and other mental illness (Stuss & Benson, 1986; Aron, Robbins, & Poldrack, 2004; Ferguson et al., 2021 The present focused on the neuropsychological assessment of executive dysfunction among Nigerian patients diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis (DIP). The assessment tools employed were mini-mental status examination (MMSE), trail making test parts A and B, fluency test and Stroop colour word test (SCWT); and the executive function components assessed were working memory, inhibition, fluency and set shifting. 100 participants consisting of patients diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis (n=56, 4 females and 52 males) and a control group of 44 persons (21 females and 23 males) took part in the study. There were statistically significant differences between DIP cases and controls on all the executive function components assessed. Regression analyses show that age was a significant predictor of the trail making test (TMT) Part B and fluency scores (t=3.36, p=0.001) (t=3.00, P=0.004); while fluency was also positively predicted by duration of illness among cases (t=2.19, p=0.32).