Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb;113(2):257-265.
doi: 10.1111/add.13946. Epub 2017 Sep 5.

Associations between adolescent cannabis use and neuropsychological decline: a longitudinal co-twin control study

Madeline H Meier  1 , Avshalom Caspi  2   3   4 , Andrea Danese  4   5   6 , Helen L Fisher  4 , Renate Houts  2   3 , Louise Arseneault  4 , Terrie E Moffitt  2   3   4
Affiliations

Associations between adolescent cannabis use and neuropsychological decline: a longitudinal co-twin control study

Madeline H Meier et al. Addiction. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Aims: This study tested whether adolescents who used cannabis or met criteria for cannabis dependence showed neuropsychological impairment prior to cannabis initiation and neuropsychological decline from before to after cannabis initiation.

Design: A longitudinal co-twin control study.

Setting and participants: Participants were 1989 twins from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of twins born in England and Wales from 1994 to 1995.

Measurements: Frequency of cannabis use and cannabis dependence were assessed at age 18. Intelligence quotient (IQ) was obtained at ages 5, 12 and 18. Executive functions were assessed at age 18.

Findings: Compared with adolescents who did not use cannabis, adolescents who used cannabis had lower IQ in childhood prior to cannabis initiation and lower IQ at age 18, but there was little evidence that cannabis use was associated with IQ decline from ages 12-18. For example, adolescents with cannabis dependence had age 12 and age 18 IQ scores that were 5.61 (t = -3.11, P = 0.002) and 7.34 IQ points (t = -5.27, P < 0.001) lower than adolescents without cannabis dependence, but adolescents with cannabis dependence did not show greater IQ decline from age 12-18 (t = -1.27, P = 0.20). Moreover, adolescents who used cannabis had poorer executive functions at age 18 than adolescents who did not use cannabis, but these associations were generally not apparent within twin pairs. For example, twins who used cannabis more frequently than their co-twin performed similarly to their co-twin on five of six executive function tests (Ps > 0.10). The one exception was that twins who used cannabis more frequently than their co-twin performed worse on one working memory test (Spatial Span reversed; β = -0.07, P = 0.036).

Conclusions: Short-term cannabis use in adolescence does not appear to cause IQ decline or impair executive functions, even when cannabis use reaches the level of dependence. Family background factors explain why adolescent cannabis users perform worse on IQ and executive function tests.

Keywords: Cannabis; IQ; executive functions; longitudinal; marijuana; neuropsychological impairment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Cressey D. The cannabis experiment. Nature. 2015;524(7565):280–3. - PubMed
    1. Solowij N, Pesa N. Cannabis and cognition: Short and long-term effects. In: Castle D, Murray RM, D’Souza DC, editors. Marijuana and Madness. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2012.
    1. Hall W. What has research over the past two decades revealed about the adverse health effects of recreational cannabis use? Addiction. 2015;110(1):19–35. - PubMed
    1. Volkow ND, Swanson JM, Evins AE, DeLisi LE, Meier MH, Gonzalez R, et al. Effects of cannabis use on human behavior, including cognition, motivation, and psychosis: A review. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016;73(3):292–7. - PubMed
    1. Broyd SJ, van Hell HH, Beale C, Yücel M, Solowij N. Acute and chronic effects of cannabinoids on human cognition—a systematic review. Biol Psychiatry. 2016;79(7):557–67. - PubMed

Publication types