Neurobehavioral Impacts of Medical Cannabis Use: An Observational Study
University of Minnesota
Summary
This study will assess cognition, neural function, and drug exposure in chronic pain patients who have been prescribed medical cannabis and will differentiate outcomes based on use of specific CBD-dominant versus THC-dominant treatment products. This longitudinal study will recruit medical cannabis users from local dispensaries. Each participant will complete a baseline assessment prior to the start of medical cannabis use, monthly phone calls to assess treatment adherence, and a four-month follow- up assessment. The aims of this project are: Aim 1. To assess impacts of medical cannabis compounds on executive functions, learning and memory in adults to determine whether cognitive impairments are evident after the onset of cannabis use; Aim 2. To assess the impacts of medical cannabis compounds on white matter microstructure, functional brain activity and functional connectivity; Aim 3. To differentiate change over four months in these outcomes as a function of (a) age and (b) pre-to-post-treatment changes in blood levels of cannabinoid compounds.
Description
This project was submitted to NIH in response to NOT-DA-22-003, Public Health Research on Cannabis. The overarching aim is to assess cognition, neural function, and SUD risk in a sample of patients treated with medical cannabis products in Minnesota (n=120) as compared to non-cannabis using controls (n=60) and to differentiate outcomes based on prescribed doses and blood concentrations of THC versus CBD as objective measures of drug exposure. Patients will be aged 35-65 and qualified for medicinal cannabis treatment in Minnesota due to diagnoses of chronic pain. While deficits in learning, mem…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 30–75 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Medical cannabis users (n=120) will be required to 1. Be ages 30-75; 2. Be qualified for a medical cannabis prescription based only on a diagnosis of chronic pain; note that individuals can, in theory, utilize medical cannabis for more than one qualifying condition. People with orthopedic pain will be prioritized. 3. Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing; 4. Be free of current and past DSM-V-defined substance use disorders; have \< 5 lifetime recreational uses of illicit drugs. 5. Have limited daily exposure to nicotine (e.g., no daily smokers/v…
Interventions
- BehavioralCognitive testing
Participants will complete a cognitive testing battery that includes measures of attention, learning, memory, problem-solving and executive function.
- BehavioralTask-based fMRI measure of face-name and verbal learning
Cognitive testing Participants will complete a cognitive battery that includes measures of attention, learning, memory, and executive function. Behavioral: Task-based fMRI measure of face-name and verbal learning. These tasks will assess cannabis effects on explicit associative learning and memory mediated by frontohippocampal networks. Participants memorize face-name or word pairs (encoding), then recall the names and word pairs after a delay. The first encoding block begins with a "MEMORIZE" cue followed by 5 face-name or word pairs; participants press a button when each pair is encoded. A distractor block follows. Next, a retrieval block begins with a "RECALL" cue, followed by the same faces or words paired with a recall prompt, with a 4-second stimulus duration. On recall trials, participants indicate recall of the name for the displayed face or word stem and engage in silent uncued recall of learned pairs. After the scan, participants are tested for retrieval accuracy.
Location
- University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota