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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

In recent years of expanding legalization, older adults have reported the largest increase in cannabis use of any age group. While its use has been studied extensively in young adults, little is known about the effects of THC in older adults and whether the risks of cannabis might be different, particularly concerning intoxication and cognition. The current study investigated whether age is associated with the deleterious effects of THC on cognitive performance and other behavioral measures before and after ad libitum self-administration of three different types of cannabis flower (THC dominant, THC + CBD, and CBD dominant). Age groups consisted of young adults (ages 21–25) and older adults (ages 55–70). Controlling for pre-use scores on all measures, the THC dominant chemovar produced a greater deleterious effect in younger adults compared with older adults in tests of learning and processing speed, whereas there were no differences between old and young in the effects of the other chemovars. In addition, the young group reported greater cannabis craving than the older group after using the THC chemovar. Consistent with some reports in the preclinical literature, the findings suggest that older adults may be less sensitive to the effects of THC on cognitive and affective measures.

Details

Title
Are the Acute Effects of THC Different in Aging Adults?
Author
Mueller, Raeghan L 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ellingson, Jarrod M 2 ; L Cinnamon Bidwell 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bryan, Angela D 1 ; Hutchison, Kent E 4 

 Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; [email protected] (A.D.B.); [email protected] (K.E.H.) 
 Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA; [email protected] 
 Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80301, USA; [email protected] 
 Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; [email protected] (A.D.B.); [email protected] (K.E.H.); Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA; [email protected] 
First page
590
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20763425
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2532329159
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.