How Long-term Marijuana Use Affects Memory – Verywell Mind

Imaging studies of marijuana’s impact on brain structure in humans have shown conflicting results. Some studies suggest regular marijuana use in adolescence is associated with altered connectivity and reduced volume of specific brain regions involved in a broad range of executive functions such as memory, learning, and impulse control compared to people who do not use.38,39 Other studies have not found significant structural differences between the brains of people who do and do not use the drug.40 Several studies, including two large longitudinal studies, suggest that marijuana use can cause functional impairment in cognitive abilities but that the degree and/or duration of the impairment depends on the age when a person began using and how much and how long he or she used.41 Among nearly 4,000 young adults in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study tracked over a 25-year period until mid-adulthood, cumulative lifetime exposure to marijuana was associated with lower scores on a test of verbal memory but did not affect other cognitive abilities such as processing speed or executive function.

However, not all of the studies on the link between marijuana and IQ have reached the same conclusion, and it is difficult to prove that marijuana causes a decline in IQ when there are multiple factors that can influence the results of such studies, such as genetics, family environment, age of first use, frequency of use, having a cannabis use disorder, duration of use, and duration of the study.

Also, the ability to draw definitive conclusions about marijuana’s long-term impact on the human brain from past studies is often limited by the fact that study participants use multiple substances, and there is often limited data about the participants’ health or mental functioning prior to the study. Over the next decade, the National Institutes of Health is funding the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study—a major longitudinal study that will track a large sample of young Americans from late childhood (before the first use of drugs) to early adulthood.

Long-term marijuana use causes memory, the speed of thinking, and other cognitive abilities to get worse over time, but cognitive abilities are also affected in short-term pot smokers who use marijuana frequently. Overview Researchers studying heavy marijuana users (defined as four or more joints per week in the context of the study) in Greece found that frequent marijuana users performed worse than non-users on a test of cognitive abilities.

Does Weed Effect Your Memory? – Dallas, Tx – Casa Colina

“We found that the longer people used marijuana, the more deterioration they had in these cognitive abilities, especially in the ability to learn and remember new information,” said study author Lambros Messinis, Ph, D, of the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital of Patras in Patras, Greece. “In several areas, their abilities were significant enough to be considered impaired, with more impairment in longer-term users than shorter-term users.” Cognitive Abilities Slowed The researchers made the following observations: Compared to non-smokers, marijuana users performed worse in the recall, recognition, and executive functions of the brain.​Frequent smokers performed worse on tests of cognitive abilities, including divided attention (ability to pay attention to more than one stimulus at a time) and verbal fluency (number of words generated within a time limit).

Before the tests were performed, all participants had to abstain from marijuana for at least 24 hours, according to the researchers.

Cannabis use has long been associated with memory loss. But until now, this notion was largely anecdotal. As researchers begin to look into cannabis and the effect that it has on human health, they’re beginning to better understand the effect it has on the human brain — and whether cannabis really does impair memory.

Short-term memory is where immediate events are temporarily stored, whereas long-term memory is where information is stored indefinitely. Current evidence shows that cannabis intoxication may temporarily alter or distort short-term memory processing. This seems to be caused by compounds in cannabis that disrupt neural signalling when binding to receptors responsible for memory in the brain.

How Long-term Marijuana Use Affects Memory – Verywell Mind

However, CBD could actually be used to treat psychosis. The story continues below advertisement Cannabis with higher levels of THC and lower, or negligible, amounts of CBD appear to have a detrimental effect on short-term memory, particularly in adolescents. The main problem is their ability to retain and recall information. Fortunately, this is not permanent.

Rather, it might be the type of cannabis, and the compounds it contains, that may have specific risks or benefits. And while there’s little doubt that some people who use cannabis do experience impaired memory, establishing that cannabis is the cause is tricky. One reason for this is because it’s difficult to rule out the impact of other drugs that people may have used — and whether these drugs contributed to this memory impairment.

Another obvious problem when researching this is when asking people with impaired memory to recall their past drug use and any associated problems. Their ability to recall these details could be compromised. Recent research even suggests that any memory impairment associated with using cannabis can be reversed when people stop using cannabis.

The story continues below the advertisement Just as higher doses of alcohol can potentially cause brain damage, higher doses or more frequent use of cannabis may also cause long-term memory problems – the ability to learn effectively and the ability to concentrate on a task for example. Some people will use both alcohol and cannabis, often at the same time, which may both worsen the potential impact on memory.

Does Cannabis Affect Your Memory? – National – Globalnews.ca

These modest declines are not fully understood, and there is a lack of high-quality research in this area. That will need to change as it’s not just young people that use cannabis. As more countries legalize cannabis, older people might also want to try it. While there is likely to be no great harm to a person’s memory if they experiment with cannabis, current research seems to agree that the more frequent the use, the greater the risk.