Abbott Gabrielle, Greenwood Lisa-Marie, Bartschi Jessica G, Dunsford Suraya, Goodwin Isabella, Paloubis Anastasia, Quinones-Valera Marianna, McTavish Eugene, Verdejo-Garcia Antonio, Cousijn Janna, Chan Gary C K, Solowij Nadia, Lorenzetti Valentina
School of Psychology, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2025 Sep 17. doi: 10.1007/s00213-025-06890-z.
Cannabis use disorder (CUD) affects over 50 million people globally. Emerging evidence shows that some people with CUD may experience altered social cognition (e.g., emotion recognition or differentiation). These impairments can affect their ability to understand others' emotional states and navigate social interactions, potentially contributing to chronic cannabis use, even when it leads to interpersonal problems. However, the literature on social cognition in cannabis users is inconsistent, based on a paucity of studies, and characterised by methodological issues including conflation of remitted and current CUD (i.e., does not consider abstinence effects on cognition), limited assessment of cannabis metrics (e.g., dosage) and confounds entrenched with CUD (e.g., nicotine/alcohol use, anxiety).
OBJECTIVES/METHODS: We aimed to examine social cognition (i.e., emotion recognition and differentiation, immediate/delayed face memory) in relation to endorsement of CUD (n = 83) vs. controls (n = 32), and measures of level of problematic cannabis use (i.e., Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test - Revised; CUDIT-R) and dosage (i.e., cannabis grams/past month), accounting for hours since last cannabis use, nicotine/alcohol use, and trait anxiety.
There were no significant effects of CUD (d = 0-0.314) or dosage and level of problematic cannabis use on social cognition.
Altered social cognition may not be a key feature of CUD, or the relationship between CUD and cognition may be moderated by factors such as age, treatment seeking, education, and IQ. In this study, younger age and higher education or IQ may have served as protective factors against social alterations. Replication studies are required to validate this notion.
全球有超过5000万人患有大麻使用障碍（CUD）。新出现的证据表明，一些患有CUD的人可能会出现社交认知改变（如情绪识别或区分）。这些损害会影响他们理解他人情绪状态和进行社交互动的能力，可能导致长期使用大麻，即使这会引发人际问题。然而，基于研究匮乏，关于大麻使用者社交认知的文献并不一致，且存在方法学问题，包括缓解期和当前CUD的混淆（即未考虑戒断对认知的影响）、大麻指标（如剂量）评估有限以及与CUD相关的混杂因素（如尼古丁/酒精使用、焦虑）。
目的/方法：我们旨在研究社交认知（即情绪识别和区分、即时/延迟面部记忆）与CUD认可情况（n = 83）和对照组（n = 32）的关系，以及问题性大麻使用水平（即修订后的大麻使用障碍识别测试；CUDIT - R）和剂量（即过去一个月使用的大麻克数），同时考虑自上次使用大麻后的时长以及尼古丁/酒精使用和特质焦虑情况。
CUD（d = 0 - 0.314）、剂量以及问题性大麻使用水平对社交认知均无显著影响。
社交认知改变可能不是CUD的关键特征，或者CUD与认知之间的关系可能受到年龄、寻求治疗情况、教育程度和智商等因素的调节。在本研究中，较年轻的年龄以及较高的教育程度或智商可能起到了防止社交改变的保护作用。需要进行重复研究来验证这一观点。
