Medical Cannabis and Behavior

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.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain Patients
• Medical Cannabis Users

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive testing

Participants will complete a cognitive testing battery that includes measures of attention, learning, memory, problem-solving and executive function.

BEHAVIORAL

Task-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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Minnesota

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

30 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-06-18

Primary Completion

2029-07-15

Completion

2029-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations