BACKGROUND: Psychiatric disorders in infancy and adolescence may impair the access to the memory of facts and events occurred during these periods. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the autobiographical and semantic memory of a group of adolescent drug users and a control group of adolescent non-users. METHODS: Twenty-five males participated in each group between 13 and 17 years old. Two questionnaires were applied: Kihlstrom e Schacter (1995) for semantic memory and Borrini et al. (1989) for autobiographical memory. RESULTS: The group of drug users had more difficulties in accessing autobiographical memory (p = 0.0205) and semantic memory (p = 0.0057). CONCLUSIONS: Some hypotheses might be raised: users presented cognitive complications that make difficult the access to long-term memories, as well as others related to the dynamics of drug use.
Autobiographical memory; semantic memory; dependence; adolescence; substance use
