NORML Blog: Latest Studies Largely Fail To Support Past Claims About Marijuana And Brain Health

Two new studies published online last week in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Psychiatry^[1] provide little support for previous claims that cannabis exposure is significantly harmful to the developing brain.

The first study ^[2], which assessed the effects of cannabis exposure on brain volume in sibling pairs, reported that any identifiable differences “were attributable to common predispositional factors, genetic or environmental in origin.” By contrast, authors found “no evidence for the causal influence of cannabis exposure” on brain morphology.

The trial is “the largest study to date examining the association between cannabis exposure (ever versus never used) and brain volumes.”

The study is one of two recent clinical trials to be published recently rebutting the claims of a widely publicized 2014 paper ^[3], which alleged that even casual marijuana exposure may be linked to brain abnormalities, particularly in the region of the brain known as the amygdala.

In January, researchers writing in the Journal of Neuroscience ^[4] reported, “no statistically significant differences … between daily [marijuana] users and nonusers on [brain] volume or shape in the regions of interest,” after researchers controlled for participants’ use of alcohol. Similarly, the most recent JAMA study, “casts considerable doubt on hypotheses that cannabis use…causes reductions in amygdala volumes.”

A second study ^[5] appearing last week in the journal assessed whether cannabis use during adolescence is associated with brain changes that may be linked to an increased risk of schizophrenia.

While researchers reported finding an association among male subjects who possessed a high genetic predisposition toward schizophrenia, authors reported that no such association existed among male subjects who were at low risk for the disease, or among females in either the high risk or low risk categories. The finding is consistent ^[6] with the theory that early onset cannabis use may potentially exacerbate symptoms in a minority of subjects predisposed to the disease, but it contradicts claims ^[7] that marijuana exposure is a likely cause of schizophrenia, particularly among those who are not already vulnerable to the disease.

Abstracts of both new studies appear online in JAMA Psychiatry here ^[8] and here ^[9].

(Photo Courtesy of YouTube ^[10])