A Comparison of Psychosocial and Cognitive Functioning Between Depressed and Non-Depressed Patients with Cannabis Dependence

摘要

Cannabis use and depressive disorders are thought to impair cognitive performance and psychosocial functioning. Both disorders co-occurring may compound the negative effects of these diagnoses. In this study we used the California Computerized Assessment Package (CalCAP) as the cognitive performance measure and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) as the psychosocial functioning measure to compare depressed and non-depressed cannabis dependent individuals (n=108, 54 cannabis dependent only, 54 cannabis dependent and depressed/dysthymic). As predicted, cannabis dependent subjects with comorbid depression showed more psychosocial impairment than subjects with cannabis dependence alone. However contrary to our hypothesis, cannabis dependent subjects with comorbid depression showed less cognitive impairment in some CalCAP modules than subjects with cannabis dependence alone. Based on our results, we conclude that the additive effects of cannabis dependency and depression may only be limited to psychosocial domains, and may not extend to cognitive functioning.