Investigating the comparison of cognitive-executive functions and emotional symptoms between individuals under methadone maintenance treatment and normal people

Background: Executive function is considered as the capacity of the human brain including the capacity for organization, cognitive flexibility, planning, problem solving, and so on. Long-term use of opiates such as heroin and methadone is associated with a wide range of executive functions deficits. The purpose of this study was to compare cognitive-executive function and emotional symptoms of people whit methadone maintenance treatment and normal people. Materials and method: This study is a causal comparative study. The study sample consisted of two groups of 40 individuals of under methadone maintenance treatment and normal people who were selected by purposeful sampling. Research tools were: Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Tower of London Test (TOL) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42). Data were analyzed by SPSS-22 and independent t-test. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between methadone-treated individuals and normal people in cognitive flexibility (t= -2.48) and planning (t= -4.96) (p<0.001). The results of DASS-42 also showed that methadone-treated individuals experience more depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms than normal people (p <0.05). Conclusion: Methadone-treated individuals perform poorer than normal people in terms of executive function, and experience more emotional symptoms. Therefore, these poor performances in the treatment of these individuals should be considered.