Study: Adults Using Cannabis May Not Experience Significant Changes from Non-Users

In a recent report concerning cannabis consumption and use verses nonusers the absence of activation differences in this study suggests that adults using cannabis for medical symptoms over 1 year may not experience significant changes within reward, working memory, or inhibitory control domains.

Cannabis is increasingly being used to treat medical symptoms, but the effects on brain function in those using cannabis for these symptoms are not known. The objective of the research is to test whether 1 year of cannabis use for medical symptoms after obtaining a medical cannabis card was associated with increased brain activation during working memory, reward, and inhibitory control tasks, areas of cognition affected by cannabis.

 This cohort study was conducted from July 2017 to July 2020 among participants from the greater Boston area who were recruited as part of a clinical trial of individuals seeking medical cannabis cards for anxiety, depression, pain, or insomnia symptoms. Participants were aged between 18 and 65 years. Exclusion criteria were daily cannabis use and cannabis use disorder at baseline. Data analysis was conducted from August 2021 to April 2024 conducted by Debbie C. L. Burdinski, BS, Alisha Kodibagkar, MSE, Kevin Potter, PhD, et al. 
 
In this cohort study of adults obtaining MCCs for medical symptoms, brain activation during working memory, reward processing, and inhibitory control tasks was not significantly different after year-long cannabis use and no association with changes in cannabis use frequency was noted. Our results suggest that adults who use cannabis, generally with light to moderate use patterns, for symptoms of pain, anxiety, depression, or poor sleep, experience few significant long-term neural associations in these areas of cognition.

The specifics and details of the study can be found at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2823671

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