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The neuropsychological profiles of young psychosis patients with and without current cannabis use
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The neuropsychological profiles of young psychosis patients with and without current cannabis use

Sophia E R Bogaty, Jacob J Crouse, Ian B Hickie and Daniel F Hermens
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Vol.24(1), pp.40-53
2019
url
https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2018.1562887View
Published Version

Abstract

young cannabis cognition psychosis schizophrenia Other Collaborations Thompson Institute Special Collection
Introduction: Evidence suggests that patients with psychosis who have a history of cannabis use, but currently abstain, demonstrate superior cognitive performance than patients who have never used cannabis. The present study aimed to determine the neurocognitive profiles of patients who are in adolescence or early adulthood, when both illness- and drug-onset typically occur. Methods: Subjects were 24 cannabis-using and 79 cannabis-naïve psychosis patients between 16 and 25 years of age. Patients and controls were administered a neurocognitive battery, indexing estimated pre-morbid intelligence, psychomotor speed, mental flexibility, verbal learning and memory, verbal fluency, sustained attention, motor and mental response, and visuospatial learning and memory. Results: While healthy controls outperformed both patient groups across most cognitive measures, no significant differences between cannabis-using and cannabis-abstinent patients were evident. Conclusion: Evidently although there may be a group of patients who are diagnosed with a non-affective psychosis disorder regardless of external factors (i.e. cannabis use), some may instead have their illness precipitated through cannabis use at a young age, presenting with unique cognitive and symptomatic repercussions later in life. These results demonstrate no cognitive differences between cannabis-using patients and abstinent patients at the time of illness-onset, providing partial support for an alternative pathway to schizophrenia through early cannabis use.

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Psychiatry

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