Research Looks At Psychosocial Events In Teen Marijuana Users With And Without Cannabis Use Disorder

Is there a connection between cannabis use disorder, non-disordered cannabis use and adverse psychological events in adolescents? According to a new cross-sectional study of more than 68,000 adolescents, there is.

The study examined the psychological events risk differences between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and non-disordered cannabis use (NDCU) reported News Medical. It also compared both groups to non-users or those who denied using marijuana ever or at least in the past year. 

Cannabis use disorder is defined as the continued use of cannabis despite its negative impact on one's life and health. CUD affects roughly 10% of the 193 million cannabis users in the world. NDCU was defined as endorsing recent cannabis use but not meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

What did the researchers find?

Study Summary

For this study, published in the Jama Network Open, nine adverse psychosocial events were taken into account: major depressive episode (MDE); slowed thinking; suicidal ideation (SI); facing difficulty in concentrating; truancy, i.e., skipping school for >1 day in the past month; being arrested for involvement in illegal activities, involved in fights; physical aggression, i.e., attack with intent to harm; and low-grade point average (GPA), i.e., C+ or below (i.e., <80%).

The researchers extracted a nationally representative sample using National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data for the period of 4 years (from 2015 to 2019), comprising adolescents (12-17 years). 

Study Highlights 

• NDCU was almost 4 times more common than CUD; 
• There was a notable correlation between adolescent NDCU to all nine adverse psychological events; 
• There are higher chances of having a major depressive episode and suicidal thoughts among cannabis users; 
• The researchers also noted that young adults often turned to marijuana to improve their depressing mood, but the ongoing use seems to make it reversible;
• Adolescents in NDCU and CDU groups were more likely to show cognitive deficits; 
• Compared to those who don’t use cannabis, users were up to 4.5 and 3.5 times more likely to skip school and have a lower GPA. 

Conclusion: “In this cross-sectional study of US adolescents, individuals with subthreshold NDCU, compared with nonusers, had greater odds of adverse psychosocial events, and for several adverse events, the risk among individuals with NDCU did not significantly differ from that among individuals with CUD,” the researchers wrote.

It is important to note that correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation.

Photo: Courtesy of Aedrian on Unsplash