AN AUSTRALIAN study on long-term medicinal cannabis users has found that consumption does not affect performance across a range of cognitive tests involved with driving.
However, medicinal cannabis did lead to poorer performance on a test of visuomotor attention - the coordination between vision and movement - highlighting the potential sensitivity of this task to its consumption.
The findings, published today, support the potential role of tolerance in mitigating effects in medical cannabis patients.
The study included 41 patients using cannabis oil and 37 using vaporised flowers.
The authors were keen to investigate how medicinal cannabis may acutely influence the ability to undertake complex and safety-sensitive tasks, such as driving.
Their performance on a battery of tests measuring information processing speed, divided and sustained attention, inhibitory control and mental flexibility was compared when no cannabis was taken and 90 minutes after taking medicinal cannabis.
"Scant research has examined the effects of THC on cognitive function among medicinal cannabis populations, who are likely to display a tolerance to the psychoactive effects of THC through frequent and ongoing use," wrote the authors.
"The present study suggests that medicinal cannabis patients with long-term and frequent usage patterns can present with tolerance to the effects of cannabis flower and oil consumption in some areas of cognitive function (namely inhibitory control, divided and sustained attention)."
"The question of whether the reduction to [visuomotor attention] performance translates into functional reductions in driving capacity needs to be addressed in future work," they suggested.
Read the paper HERE. KB
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