Can marijuana make it better? Prospective effects of marijuana and temperament on risk for anxiety and depression.

Abstract

Increases in marijuana use in recent years highlight the importance of understanding how marijuana affects mental health. Of particular relevance is the effect of marijuana use on anxiety and depression given that marijuana use is highest among late adolescents/early adults, the same age range in which risk for anxiety and depression is the highest. Here we examine how marijuana use moderates the effects of temperament on level of anxiety and depression in a prospective design in which baseline marijuana use and temperament predict anxiety and depression one year later. We found that harm avoidance (HA) is associated with higher anxiety and depression a year later, but only among those low in marijuana use. Those higher in marijuana use show no relation between HA and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Marijuana use also moderated the effect of novelty seeking (NS), with symptoms of anxiety and depression increasing with NS only among those with high marijuana use. NS was unrelated to symptoms of anxiety and depression among those low in marijuana use. The temperament dimension of reward dependence was unrelated to anxiety and depression symptoms. Our results suggest that marijuana use does not have an invariant relationship with anxiety and depression, and that the effects of relatively stable temperament dimensions can be moderated by other contextual factors.

Outcomes of a PrEP Demonstration Project with LGBTQ Youth in a Community-Based Clinic Setting with Integrated Gender-Affirming Care

“…Half (50%) of the participants identified as transgender women, 38% as cisgender men, and 12% as transgender men. Participant median age was 26 years (range [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Assessing Marijuana Use, Anxiety, and Academic Performance Among College Students

“…As a secondary analysis, the current study was unable to assess for marijuana use problems, which may be uniquely related to anxiety and use of marijuana as a coping mechanism. Additionally, further studies have proposed various other factors that may complicate the pattern between marijuana use and anxiety, including parental attitudes and tension reduction expectancies (Foster, Ecker, Zvolensky, & Buckner, 2015), an individual's temperament in terms of harm avoidance versus novelty seeking (Grunberg, Cordova, Bidwell, & Ito, 2015), distress tolerance (Semcho et al, 2016), and behavioral avoidance (Buckner, Zvolensky, Farris, & Hogan, 2014). Thus, the relationship between marijuana use and anxiety remains quite complex, and these findings certainly add further complexity to our current understanding of this dynamic.…”

“…Other research that has suggested marijuana may attenuate the risk for depression and anxiety has noted that this relationship was largely subject to individual temperament (Grunberg et al, 2015). Also, individuals may seek out more formal anxiety treatment regardless of whether or not they are using marijuana to cope.…”

Clinical and functional outcomes of cannabis use among individuals with anxiety disorders: A 3‐year population‐based longitudinal study

“…Several studies have explored the effect of cannabis use on the course of specific anxiety disorders. For example, individuals who used cannabis were more prone to have earlier onset of panic attacks (Zvolensky, Bernstein, Marshall, & Feldner, ), elevated intensity of anxiety symptoms during panic attacks (Szuster, Pontius, & Campos, ), and increased severity of anxiety symptoms (Grunberg, Cordova, Bidwell, & Ito, ). In addition, it has been suggested that pathological use of cannabis (i.e., cannabis use disorders [CUDs]) may be associated with increased risk for the onset of anxiety disorders (Zvolensky et al., ) and may predict poorer outcome of anxiety disorders (Essau, Conradt, & Petermann, ).…”