Cognitive dysfunctions in chronic cannabis users observed during treatment - an integrative approach.

On December 8, Thomas Lundqvist will present a thesis in applied psychology at the University of Lund. The title of the thesis is 'Cognitive dysfunctions in chronic cannabis users observed during treatment - An integrative approach'.

Abstract: Clinicians report that chronic cannabis users seem to have symptoms, such as mental confusion and memory problems when entering treatment, that it is difficult to understand the cognitive style of chronic cannabis users, and that it is difficult to motivate them to submit to and keep them in treatment.

This is the incitement of the present thesis, which is based on clinical observations made during treatment of chronic cannabis users during and after a cessation of cannabis use over the past ten years. The systematized observations provide knowledge of how cannabis influences patients that submit to treatment. A treatment method is extensively described, based on the observations and the pharmacological knowledge of the cannabinoids. It is a strategy to help the patients in identifying the cognitive deficits and to help them in improvement and consolidation of the cognitive functioning.

A comprehensive description of the impact of cannabis on human cognitive functions is described in the conceptual framework of seven cognitive categories. The origin of the cognitive dysfunction is discussed in a context of biochemical, neuropsychological, and cognitive theory, as normalization of these cognitive functions during therapy with a cognitive approach.

The thesis contains three studies. In the first study the observations, compiled since 1978, are presented according to the cognitive categories, which can be considered a logistic framework. The reversible process of the dysfunctional behaviour is the subject for the second study, describing the differences in thinking patterns between being a cannabis smoker and a former cannabis smoker. In the third study chronic cannabis users were tested using the Sense of Coherence scale (SOC) to determine the extent to which patients display comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness of life, which normalized between admission and the completion of therapy with a cognitive approach six weeks later. This is discussed in the context of cognitive and psychosocial problems associated with chronic cannabis use.

It is concluded that the observed cognitive dysfunction is reversible.