Similar to brain lesion patients, cocaine-dependent individuals also show a preference for disadvantageous choices on the IGT. Stout and colleagues (2004) found that cocaine-dependent participants preferred the disadvantageous choices relative to controls. Cognitive modeling suggests that motivational and choice consistency factors, but not learning and memory, are responsible for the decision-making deficit in cocaine users (Stout et al., 2004). Verdejo-Garcia and colleagues (2007) compared IGT performance between 12 abstinent cocaine-dependent subjects and 14 controls, finding that cocaine-dependent individuals showed poorer performance on the IGT that correlated with amount of past cocaine use (Verdejo-Garcia et al., 2007). In a recent report (van der Plas et al., 2008), cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol-dependent men and women were compared to controls using the IGT. This study showed fewer advantageous choices with methamphetamine and cocaine-dependent individuals. Finally, those individuals with poorer decision-making on the IGT had worse treatment response (Green et al., 2009a).
