Tashkent Medical Academy, Tashkent, Uzbekistan Cognitive impairments at various stages of clinical opiate addiction* Received 23.02.2012 г. <...> Выдвинуто предположение, что выявленные изменения в головном мозге способствуют формированию нарушений в когнитивной сфере в виде снижения концентрации внимания, быстрой ее истощаемости, нарушения памяти, эмоциональных и поведенческих расстройств, что соответствует преддементным и дементным состояниям по шкале MMSE. <...> Ключевые слова: героин, нейрокогнитивные изменения, поражение ЦНС, компьютерно-томографическое исследование, стаж заболевания. * Орфография и стиль авторов сохранены. – Прим. ред. 68 Оригинальные исследования Opiate addiction (OA) facilitates toxic affection of various organs and systems, primarily, of central nervous system (CNS) and higher brain functions. <...> Neurocognitive impairments are the most typical manifestations of CNS organic disorders, the degree of their intensity varying from mild to severe [1, 4, 9]. <...> Complexity and many-sidedness of opiate addiction problem requires work-up in various directions with synthesis of findings accumulated in the course of studying not only psychic sphere, but CNS as a whole, higher brain functions included. <...> Opiate addiction is associated with affection of neurochemical and neurophysiological processes, morphological changes in the brain, as well as with psychic and behavioral disorders. <...> Both addiction duration and age of drug use onset determine the intensity of OA-associated neurocognitive impairments and other organic psychic disorders. <...> The earlier the drug use starts and the longer it continues, the more severe organic changes take place in the addict’s brain and the more pronounced neurocognitive impairments are. <...> Defective operative and short-term memory as well as low motivational activity can be specified as typical manifestations. <...> Heroin affects formation of complex inductive inferences, visual-spatial coordination, understanding of logical-grammatical relations, spatial analysis and synthesis; disorders of visual memory, tactile perception and praxis being registered as well [2, 6–9]. <...> According to Rokhlina (2000) and Kozlov (2001) intellectual mnestic disorders occurred in 100% of opiate addicts, their degree assessed as mild, moderate and severe in 34%, 56% and 10%, respectively. <...> Occurrence of OA-associated neurocognitive impairments <...>