A study involving 63 polysubstance dependent women and 46 controls (participants who were not using substances) used the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to look at visual memory and verbal ability. This study showed that in polysubstance dependent women, verbal learning ability was significantly decreased, though visual memory was not affected. In addition, alcohol and cocaine use led to more severe issues with verbal learning, recall, and recognition. Memory, reasoning and decision making
Sometimes studies about specific groups in the general population can be informative. One study decided to test the cognitive abilities of participants in rave parties who used multiple substances. To do this, they compared 25 rave party attenders with 27 control participants who were not using substances. The results of this study indicated that in general, the rave attender group did not perform as well on tasks that tested speed of information processing, working memory, knowledge of similarities between words, ability to attend to a task with interference in the background, and decision making. Certain substances were associated with particular mental functions, but the researchers suggested that the impairments for working memory and reasoning were caused by the misuse of multiple substances.Another study that tried to find differences between the effects of particular substances focused on people with polysubstance use who were seeking treatment for addictions to cannabis, cocaine, and heroin. They studied a group of people with polysubstance use and a group that was not dependent on any substances.
The results of this study indicated that of the 17.3% who said that they regularly used substances, 40% said that they used more than one substance, but 3.9% specifically reported using three or more substances, indicating that there is a lot of overlap in the use of different substances. The researchers compared their results to earlier German studies and found that substance dependence seems to be increasing, at least in Germany. Gender differences
Women and men differ in various ways when it comes to addictions. Research has shown that women are more likely to be polysubstance dependent. It has been noted that a larger percentage of women use licit (legal) substances such as tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants. On the other hand, men are more likely to use illicit (illegal) substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and other illicit substances. Research suggests that women addicts more frequently have a family history of substance use. When asked to describe their onset of addictions, women more frequently describe their addiction as sudden where as men describe them as gradual. Females have a higher percentage of fatty tissues and a lower percentage of body water than men. Therefore, women absorb substances more slowly. This means these substances are at a higher concentration in a womans bloodstream. Female addicts are known to be at greater risk for fatty liver disease, hypertension, anemia, and other disorders. See also
Self-medication

References
External links

A great resource for more information: http://www.nida.nih.gov/nidahome.html