Schwartz R H, Gruenewald P J, Klitzner M, Fedio P
Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
Am J Dis Child. 1989 Oct;143(10):1214-9. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1989.02150220110030.
The concentration of delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol in marijuana available in the United States has increased by 250% since investigations of the effects of marijuana on short-term memory first appeared in scientific journals. Moreover, previous investigations of short-term memory in long-term marijuana smokers involved adults only. We evaluated the auditory/verbal and visual/spatial memory of 10 cannabis-dependent adolescents and compared the results with performance of 17 subjects in two control groups. The control groups included 8 adolescent drug abusers who had not been long-term users of cannabis and another 9 adolescents who had never abused any drug. All three groups were matched on age, IQ, and absence of previous learning disabilities. Adolescents with a history of frequent alcohol or phencyclidine abuse were excluded from entering the study. A battery of seven neuropsychological tests was administered initially to all subjects and a parallel test battery was administered 6 weeks thereafter. Significant differences between the cannabis-dependent group and the two control groups were obtained initially on the Benton Visual Retention Test (F[2,24] = 6.07) and the Wechsler Memory Scale Prose Passages (F[2,23] = 7.04). After 6 weeks of supervised abstention from intoxicants, subjects in the cannabis-dependent group showed some significant improvement on the Wechsler Memory Prose Passages score and on the Benton Visual Retention Test; however, the improvement failed to achieve statistical significance. We concluded that cannabis-dependent adolescents have selective short-term memory deficits that continue for at least 6 weeks after the last use of marijuana.
自从关于大麻对短期记忆影响的研究首次出现在科学期刊上以来，美国市面上大麻中δ-9-四氢大麻酚的浓度已经增长了250%。此外，之前对长期吸食大麻者短期记忆的研究仅涉及成年人。我们评估了10名大麻依赖青少年的听觉/言语记忆和视觉/空间记忆，并将结果与两个对照组中17名受试者的表现进行了比较。对照组包括8名未曾长期吸食大麻的青少年药物滥用者以及另外9名从未滥用过任何药物的青少年。所有三组在年龄、智商和无既往学习障碍方面进行了匹配。有频繁酒精或苯环利定滥用史的青少年被排除在本研究之外。最初对所有受试者进行了一组包含七项神经心理学测试的评估，并在六周后进行了一组平行测试。大麻依赖组与两个对照组之间最初在本顿视觉保持测验（F[2,24] = 6.07）和韦氏记忆量表散文段落测试（F[2,23] = 7.04）中存在显著差异。在接受六周的监督下戒除毒品后，大麻依赖组的受试者在韦氏记忆散文段落得分和本顿视觉保持测验中显示出一些显著改善；然而，这种改善未达到统计学意义。我们得出结论，大麻依赖青少年存在选择性短期记忆缺陷，且在最后一次使用大麻后至少持续六周。
