While neuropsychological deficits have been reported in healthy individuals who use cannabis, data in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are lacking. Given that MS is associated with cognitive deterioration, the aim of this study was to determine the cognitive effects of inhaled or ingested cannabis in this population. Fifty MS patients (25 cannabis users and 25 non-users) completed the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in MS battery of neuropsychological tests. Cannabis users had significantly poorer performance on measures of information processing speed, executive functions, and visuospatial perception, and were twice as likely to be classified as globally cognitively impaired. Similar results were found after controlling for potential confounding variables. This study provides evidence that prolonged cannabis use in MS patients is associated with poorer performance on cognitive domains commonly affected in this population. The therapeutic benefits patients may derive from using cannabis should be weighed against the associated cognitive side-effects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/30635 |
| Date | 08 December 2011 |
| Creators | Honarmand, Kimia |
| Contributors | Feinstein, Anthony |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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