Department of Medicine, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Northshore University Hospital/Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New York.
Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, New York.
J Psychopharmacol. 2021 Jul;35(7):833-840. doi: 10.1177/0269881120972337. Epub 2021 Feb 7.
Aspects of the canonical stress response differ in stimulant, opioid, and alcohol users relative to controls, and dysregulated responses to stress may contribute to continued use of these drugs. Little prior research has focused on stress responses in regular cannabis smokers. We assessed responses to a standardized laboratory social stress assay (the Trier Social Stress Task; TSST) in regular cannabis smokers (CANs) compared with controls (CONs).
Healthy, non-treatment-seeking adult CANs (⩾4×/week; smoking cannabis as usual) and demographically matched CONs completed the TSST. Outcome measures were subjective mood, heart rate, and salivary cortisol.
Nineteen CANs (1 female) and 20 CONs (2 female) participated; groups were matched on trauma exposure, sex, race, and age. CANs smoked cannabis 6.4 ± 1.1 days/week. Eight CANs and one CON smoked tobacco cigarettes daily. Overall, the TSST produced expected increases in anxiety, negative mood states, cortisol, and heart rate. CANs had blunted subjective response to stress relative to CONs, but they did not differ in physiological (cortisol and cardiovascular) stress responding.
These results indicate that CANs have blunted mood responses to social stress, but normative physiological stress responding. Observed differences could be due to residual effects of cannabis, reluctance to endorse negative mood states, or to issues related to identifying (i.e., emotional identification) or feeling (i.e., interoception) stress-related affective states. Further research is warranted to characterize the mechanisms of these differences and assess implications for daily functioning and treatment outcomes.
与对照组相比，兴奋剂、阿片类药物和酒精使用者的经典应激反应方面存在差异，而应激反应失调可能导致这些药物的持续使用。先前很少有研究关注经常吸食大麻者的应激反应。我们评估了经常吸食大麻者（CANs）与对照组（CONs）在标准化实验室社会应激测定（Trier 社会应激测试；TSST）中的应激反应。
健康、非治疗性寻求成人 CANs（≥4/周；照常吸食大麻）和在人口统计学上匹配的 CONs 完成了 TSST。结果测量是主观情绪、心率和唾液皮质醇。
19 名 CANs（1 名女性）和 20 名 CONs（2 名女性）参与；两组在创伤暴露、性别、种族和年龄方面相匹配。CANs 每周吸食大麻 6.4±1.1 天。八名 CANs 和一名 CONs 每天吸食烟草香烟。总体而言，TSST 引起了焦虑、负面情绪状态、皮质醇和心率的预期增加。与 CONs 相比，CANs 对压力的主观反应迟钝，但在生理（皮质醇和心血管）应激反应方面没有差异。
这些结果表明，CANs 对社会压力的情绪反应迟钝，但对正常的生理应激反应。观察到的差异可能是由于大麻的残留效应、不愿表达负面情绪状态，或与识别（即情绪识别）或感受（即内脏感觉）与压力相关的情感状态有关的问题。需要进一步研究以确定这些差异的机制，并评估其对日常功能和治疗结果的影响。
