The detection of cognitive impairment among substance-abusing patients: the accuracy of the neuropsychological assessment battery-screening module.

In this investigation, the authors examined the classification accuracy of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery-Screening Module (NAB-SM) in detecting the presence of general cognitive impairment among substance-abusing patients. The NAB-SM and the Neuropsychological Screening Battery (NSB), which has been shown to discriminate reliably between cognitively impaired and unimpaired substance-abusing patients, were each administered to 84 detoxified substance-abusing patients entering residential treatment. Using participants' performance on the NSB as the criterion measure, the authors found that 30 patients (36%) were cognitively impaired; using the NAB-SM, they classified 32 patients (38%) as cognitively impaired. Levels of agreement and diagnostic efficiency between the 2 batteries were excellent, suggesting the NAB-SM can discriminate accurately between cognitively impaired and unimpaired substance-abusing patients.