The Effect of Cannabis on Cognition and Neuroimaging in those with PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has the highest lifetime prevalence of all anxiety disorders (8-9%), shows high rates of comorbidity with MDD, and is a critical predictor of suicidality. Increasingly, PTSD patients are seeking alternative treatments to current interventions, many of which have not been proven to be effective and may in fact be harmful. The most pressing example of this is the increased prevalence of medical marijuana (MM) use among PTSD patients. While it is possible that MM use temporarily alleviates PTSD symptoms, such as stress responses, flashbacks and recurring traumatic memories/dreams, more data is needed to ensure that MM does not lead to negative outcomes, such as addiction or cognitive side effects. In this neuroimaging study, we investigated the neural correlates of emotion processing and neural activity in those with and without PTSD and MJ use.