Cannabis Enhances Bipolar Patients' Neurocognitive Performance

[edgarshade]

Medical News Today

Article Date: 14 Aug 2012 - 10:00 PDT

According to a study published online in the journal Psychiatry Research, individuals with bipolar disorder who used cannabis showed higher neurocognitive performance than patients who did not use cannabis.

Researchers at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Long Island, NY, in collaboration with a team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, examined the difference in cognitive performance among 50 individuals with bipolar disorder who had a history of cannabis use, with 150 bipolar patients who had no history of cannabis use.

Both groups of patients were similar in age at bipolar onset. In addition, the groups did not differ in racial background, age, or highest education level achieved.

The team discovered that patients who used cannabis showed superior neurocognitive performance than those who did not. However, patients who used cannabis did not differ considerably on estimates of premorbid IQ.

More...
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249006.php

 

[skillet]

That group did a similar study with schizophrenia too, that's free to read. They say, "one potential explanation for these findings is that that better cognitive function may represent a risk factor for the development of CUD (cannabis use disorder) in patients with SZ. Specifically, the presence of CUD in patients with SZ may be a reflection of the patients’ ability to competently engage in social interaction which, in turn, may be a reflection of more intact cognitive functioning. Indeed, several studies of patients with SZ have demonstrated a relationship between neurocognitive performance and interpersonal skills."

So it could just be that higher functioning schizophrenics are more able to go out and get cannabis. But then, "while several epidemiological studies from around the world consistently estimate a lifetime prevalence rate of ~8% for CUD in the general population, a recent metaanalysis of 35 studies from 16 countries indicated that the median rate of lifetime CUD was 27.1% in patients diagnosed with SZ." And it does seem that CBD at least is a pretty effective antipsychotic, so there could well be something to it.

Hopefully there'll be some decent alternatives to the atypicals around soon...

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Wow, that speaks to me personally.

I know that atypical anti-psychotics are supposed to improve cognition in schizophrenics, but I haven't been able to find anything regarding the effects of anti-psychotics on cognition in those with bipolar. This furthers Cannabis as a legitimate medicine (though despite relative uniformity, the study definitely needs to be more rigorously undertaken and replicated). And they really should use around the same number of participants in their control group as in the experimental one.

It's true that it could just be that those who use Cannabis were more likely to have superior cognition in the first place as they could cope with the possible reduced cognition that Cannabis elicits in them.