Alcohol use disorder (AUD) forms a major health concern and is the most common substance use disorder worldwide. The behavioural and cognitive deficits associated with AUD have often been related to impairments in risky decision-making. The aim of this study was to examine the magnitude and type of risky decision-making deficits of adults with AUD, as well as to explore the potential mechanisms behind these deficits. To this end, existing literature comparing risky decision-making task performance of an AUD group to a control group (CG) was systematically searched and analysed. A meta-analysis was performed to address overall effects. In total, 56 studies were included. In the majority of studies (i.e., 68%), the performance of the AUD group(s) deviated from the CG(s) on one or more of the adopted tasks, which was confirmed by a small to medium pooled effect size (Hedges’ g = 0.45). This review therefore provides evidence of increased risk taking in adults with AUD as compared to CGs. The increased risk taking may be due to deficits in affective and deliberative decision-making. Making use of ecologically valid tasks, future research should investigate whether risky decision-making deficits predate and/or are consequential to the addiction of adults with AUD.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) form a heterogeneous, widespread group of disorders, generally characterized by progressive cognitive decline and neuropsychiatric disturbances. One of the abilities that seems particularly vulnerable to the impairments in neurodegenerative diseases is the capability to manage one’s personal finances. Indeed, people living with neurodegenerative diseases were shown to consistently present with more problems on performance-based financial tasks than healthy individuals. While objective, performance-based tasks provide insight into the financial competence of people living with neurodegenerative diseases in a controlled, standardized setting; relatively little can be said, based on these tasks, about their degree of success in dealing with the financial demands, issues, or questions of everyday life (i.e., financial performance). The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of the literature examining self and informant reports of financial performance in people living with neurodegenerative diseases. In total, 22 studies were included that compared the financial performance of people living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease, or multiple sclerosis to a (cognitively) normal control group. Overall, the results indicate that people living with neurodegenerative diseases are more vulnerable to impairments in financial performance than cognitively normal individuals and that the degree of reported problems seems to be related to the severity of cognitive decline. As the majority of studies however focused on MCI or AD and made use of limited assessment methods, future research should aim to develop and adopt more comprehensive assessments to study strengths and weaknesses in financial performance of people living with different neurodegenerative diseases.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting 1% of people older than 60 years. One of the abilities that seems vulnerable to the cognitive impairments associated with PD is financial capability. This explorative study aimed to evaluate the extent and type of problems in financial capability of people with PD without a diagnosis of dementia. Participants were 31 people with PD and 62 matched controls. Participants completed an extensive test-battery, including measures for financial capability and cognitive functioning. Compared to controls, the PD-group performed significantly poorer on two financial competence tasks and showed a comparable performance on the other financial capability measures. For 45% of the PD-group, cognitive test performance was indicative of mild cognitive impairment, yet no significant difference was observed in overall cognitive functioning between the PD and control group. In the total sample, only small or medium correlations were found between financial competence and cognition, and between financial capability and the contextual factors of income and financial experience. The findings suggest that in the earlier stages of PD, when cognitive impairments are relatively mild, some problems may be observed in financial competence, yet other domains of financial capability appear less affected. The absence of strong correlations between financial competence and overall cognitive functioning indicates that standard neuropsychological assessments seem inadequate to make financial capability determinations. By offering insight into the financial capability of people in the milder stages of PD, the findings of the present study may aid in the development and provision of tailored support.

Individuals in the early stages of psychosis often experience significant challenges with social participation and physical inactivity, which can negativel