Background and Objective: Impairment in cognitive domains  occurs commonly in substance use disorders. Tramadol abuse is a common problemin Egypt. The objective of this study was to study the effect of tramadol addiction on attention and memory.
Methods: This study included 30 patients with tramadol addiction and 30 control subjects (matched for age, sex, and education).The participants were interviewed using attention and memory subscales of Montreal Cognitive Assessmenttest (MoCA) and Trail making test A and B.
Results: The average score of memory in the tramadol addiction group was 2.46±1.33, while the average score in the control group was4.47±1.04, there was significant difference between the two groups with P value <0.0001.There was no statistically significant impairment in Trail making tests A and B.Therewas no association between cognitive impairment and sociodemographicor clinical factors.
Conclusions: Tramadol addiction causes impairment in memory.There is no effect of tramadol dose or duration of abuse on cognitive impairment.