research on addiction

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare sustained attention between three groups of methamphetamine addicts, heroin addicts, and normal people. Method: In this causal-comparative study, 30 methamphetamine dependent participants and 30 heroin dependent participants were selected using purposive sampling from among the men who referred to RIBIRTH Center for Addiction of the city of Tabriz. In addition, 30 normal individuals were selected for the control group. These three groups had been matched in terms of age, gender, education, marital status, and socioeconomic status. All three groups were evaluated by means of demographic questionnaire and continuous performance test. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between methamphetamine and heroin groups and between methamphetamine users and normal people in terms of the reaction time of CPT, as a measure of sustained attention; indeed, the methamphetamine group gained higher mean scores in that regard (P<.01). In other indicators of sustained attention, i.e. errors of commission and errors of omission, the difference between the normal group and heroin users was obtained significant (P<.01). Conclusion: Therefore, it can be argued that the application of sustained attention tasks is lower in methamphetamine and heroin users than that in normal people. In addition to the more accurate understanding of the problem, the better identification and recognition of these factors can pave the way for the higher effectiveness of the current treatment methods and also for the provision of new therapeutic strategies.