Long-Term Cannabis Use Linked to Dementia Risk Factors

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Long-Term Cannabis Use Linked to Dementia Risk Factors

Long-term cannabis use is linked to hippocampal atrophy and poorer cognitive function in midlife — known risk factors for dementia.

A large prospective, longitudinal study showed long-term cannabis users had an intelligence quotient (IQ) decline from age 18 to midlife (mean 5.5 IQ points), poorer learning and processing speed compared to childhood, and self-reported memory and attention problems. Long-term cannabis users also showed hippocampal atrophy at midlife (age 45), which combined with mild midlife cognitive deficits, all known risk factors for dementia.

“Long-term cannabis users — people who have used cannabis from 18 or 19 years old and continued using through midlife — showed cognitive deficits compared with non-users. They also showed more severe cognitive deficits compared with long-term alcohol users and long-term tobacco users. But people who used infrequently or recreationally in midlife did not show as severe cognitive deficits. Cognitive deficits were confined to cannabis users,” lead investigator Madeline MeierPhD, associate professor of Psychology, Barrett Honors, Arizona State University, Tempe, told Medscape Medical News.

“Long-term cannabis users had smaller hippocampal volume, but we also found that smaller hippocampal volume did not explain the cognitive deficits among the long-term cannabis users,” she added.

The study was recently published online March 8 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

There is a great deal about this study that needs to be explored.  I think that it needs to be pointed out that marijuana is stronger now.

More Potent

“If you’ve been using cannabis very long-term and now are in midlife, you might want to consider quitting. Quitting is associated with slightly better cognitive performance in midlife. We also need to watch for risk of dementia. We know that people who show cognitive deficits at midlife are at elevated risk for later life dementia. And the deficits we saw among long-term cannabis users (although fairly mild), they were in the range in terms of effect size of what we see among people in other studies who have gone on to develop dementia in later life,” said Meier.

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