The Effect of Marijuana Craving on Brain Activation and Recognition Memory in Healthy and Bipolar Adolescents
type: CreativeWork
description: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic mood disorder that is characterized by emotional dysregulation. Bipolar disorder has a higher rate of comorbidity with substance use disorders (SUD) than any other Axis I disorder and marijuana tends to be the most abused illicit drug in this population. There is evidence that SUDs are often associated with negative effects on BD treatment outcomes. Cognitive deficits are also more severe in patients who have BD and comorbid SUDs than in those with BD alone. The present study was designed to better understand the neural mechanisms associated with marijuana use in BD and the cognitive and behavioral effects of marijuana use in individuals with BD. We compared four groups of adolescents: adolescents with bipolar disorder with comorbid marijuana use (BPMJ); adolescents with bipolar disorder without comorbid marijuana use (BP); adolescents with marijuana use disorder without a comorbid mood or psychotic disorder (MJ); healthy adolescents (HA). The four groups were compared on tests of brain activation in response to a cue-reactivity task, self-reported craving and performance on a recognition memory task in order to parse the cognitive effects of bipolar disorder and the alteration in cognitive performance related to the effects of craving. We examined fMRI measures of brain activation and self-reported craving in response to a marijuana-specific cue-reactivity task in these four groups. We predicted individuals in the marijuana using groups would exhibit increased self-reported craving and increased activation in specific regions of interest in response to marijuana pictures in brain regions associated with drug craving when compared to the non-marijuana using groups. We also hypothesized that increased craving would increase recognition of marijuana-related images on a recognition task. The primary finding was that recognition memory for total combined stimuli and neutral stimuli was reduced in groups with bipolar disorder. The hypot…
abstract: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic mood disorder that is characterized by emotional dysregulation. Bipolar disorder has a higher rate of comorbidity with substance use disorders (SUD) than any other Axis I disorder and marijuana tends to be the most abused illicit drug in this population. There is evidence that SUDs are often associated with negative effects on BD treatment outcomes. Cognitive deficits are also more severe in patients who have BD and comorbid SUDs than in those with BD alone. The present study was designed to better understand the neural mechanisms associated with marijuana use in BD and the cognitive and behavioral effects of marijuana use in individuals with BD. We compared four groups of adolescents: adolescents with bipolar disorder with comorbid marijuana use (BPMJ); adolescents with bipolar disorder without comorbid marijuana use (BP); adolescents with marijuana use disorder without a comorbid mood or psychotic disorder (MJ); healthy adolescents (HA). The four groups were compared on tests of brain activation in response to a cue-reactivity task, self-reported craving and performance on a recognition memory task in order to parse the cognitive effects of bipolar disorder and the alteration in cognitive performance related to the effects of craving. We examined fMRI measures of brain activation and self-reported craving in response to a marijuana-specific cue-reactivity task in these four groups. We predicted individuals in the marijuana using groups would exhibit increased self-reported craving and increased activation in specific regions of interest in response to marijuana pictures in brain regions associated with drug craving when compared to the non-marijuana using groups. We also hypothesized that increased craving would increase recognition of marijuana-related images on a recognition task. The primary finding was that recognition memory for total combined stimuli and neutral stimuli was reduced in groups with bipolar disorder. The hypot…
author: Burciaga, Joaquin
language: English
keywords: Psychology, Bipolar Disorder, Marijuana, fMRI, Recognition Memory, Adolescents, Craving
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:36:23Z
provider: OhioLINK
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cincinnati