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According to a new study published this week, marijuana use may pose a higher risk to the developing adolescent brain than alcohol use.
The analysis, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that cannabis had more serious consequences in the short and long term than alcohol on four key components of adolescent memory. The discovery greatly surprised the researchers.
"We initially thought that alcohol would have a bigger effect," Patricia TODAY told Patricia Conrod, senior author and professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.
The researchers examined four cognitive functions: problem solving, long-term memory, short-term memory manipulation, and the ability to end habitual behavior when needed. Marijuana has "significant" negative effects on all four, while the study could not link alcohol to negative effects, Conrod said.
However, the effects of alcohol may be greater if teens drink later in life, Conrod said.
The authors examined nearly 4,000 students in the Montreal area over a four-year period, starting at about 13 years of age.
Students passed annual memory tests and self-reported their use of alcohol and marijuana. The authors of these reports were kept confidential "unless this information indicates an imminent risk of harm".
By the fourth year, three quarters of the students had consumed alcohol at least on occasion, while only about 30% of participants had used marijuana. But the study observed more daily users of marijuana than alcoholics, Conrod said.
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The study found that some of the negative effects of marijuana were short term, while others were lasting.
A particularly troubling result: young cannabis users can cause long-term damage to brain function associated with substance abuse.
When they studied the inhibition of the response, ie the ability of an individual to modify his actions to achieve a goal, the researchers found that teens consuming marijuana caused long-term brain damage.
Conrod said the discovery may help explain a previously "complicated" phenomenon: it has been shown that young cannabis users are at greater risk of becoming addicted later in life.
Copyright 2017 USATODAY.com
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