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The findings of the study revealed that cannabis use among adolescents has simultaneous and lasting effects on important cognitive functions – such as working memory, perceptual reasoning and inhibitory control.
These effects appeared more perceptible for cannabis use than those observed for alcohol, according to the results published in American Journal of Psychiatry.
"The literature on the relationship between substance use and brain function in adolescents is varied and may depend on how cognitive deficits in children that existed prior to the onset of drug abuse are considered in these analyzes. " Jean-Francois G. Morin, BA, psychology and psychiatry departments of the Université de Montréal, written by his colleagues. "It is important that new large-scale studies incorporate development-sensitive conceptions that model the impact of annual changes in substance use on cognitive age-related changes."
The researchers followed a large sample of Canadian high school students in Grades 7 to 10 (n = 3,826) to determine the causal and long-lasting effects of substance use on cognitive development of adolescents at all ages. consumption levels – abstinence, occasional consumption or high consumption.
They used a development-sensitive model to model the relationships between annual changes in cannabis use and alcohol use and cognitive development in cognitive domains. Participants were assessed annually for four years on alcohol and cannabis use, recall memory, perceptual reasoning, inhibition and working memory via computerized classroom assessments. Morin and his colleagues performed multilevel regression analyzes, modeled separately for each substance, to simultaneously test vulnerability (between subjects) as well as simultaneous and delayed effects (within the subject) on each cognitive domain.
The analysis revealed common vulnerability effects to cannabis and alcohol on all cognitive domains. The results revealed that cannabis use among adolescents had delayed (neurotoxic) effects on inhibitory control and working memory, as well as competing effects on delayed memory recall and perceptual reasoning.
The results of the cannabis model indicated that the average 4-year cannabis use frequency (differences between subjects) was related to a lower performance on working memory (P = 0.04), perceptual reasoning (P = .001) and inhibition (P <0.01) over the same period, depending on the results. The researchers found that "including interactions with improved weather, the model only suited the perceptual reasoning model and revealed a time-by-subject interaction, suggesting stronger effects within the subject or simultaneousP <0.003) in early adolescence until late adolescence (P = 0.03). "
The effects of cannabis were independent of any effects related to alcohol, the researchers said. The 4-year average alcohol consumption rate was associated with a lower spatial work memory performance (P <0.05), lower perceptual reasoning scores (P <0.01) and other errors on the inhibitory control task (P <0.01).
The results of the alcohol-cannabis model revealed that the common vulnerability between working memory and cannabis was not significant in relation to alcohol consumption and vice versa. According to the researchers, this suggests that an insufficient working memory could constitute a nonspecific common vulnerability to the abuse of psychoactive substances in adolescence.
"It will be important to conduct similar analyzes with this cohort or with similar cohorts during the transition to early adulthood, when alcohol and cannabis use becomes more severe", Patricia J. Conrod, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal, said in a press release. "This could be particularly relevant for the effects of alcohol: although this study did not detect the effects of alcohol consumption in adolescents on cognitive development, the neurotoxic effects may be observed in specific subgroups differentiated by level of consumption, sex or age. " – by Savannah Demko
Disclosure: The authors do not report any relevant financial information.
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