A study by researchers from Oregon State University and Washington State University has found that high-potency cannabis may improve mood and decrease anxiety in young adults, while having no affects on emotional regulation.
Published in Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical & Experimental, the study “used a novel methodology to examine the acute effects of high-potency cannabis flower on emotion regulation.”
The study involved 12 participants aged 21 to 30 who used cannabis at least once per week. Researchers assessed their emotion regulation abilities through two tasks: the Emotional Go/No-Go Task for implicit emotion regulation and a cognitive reappraisal task for explicit regulation. These tasks were conducted under both sober and intoxicated conditions, with participants smoking cannabis flower at home under video observation.
“Participants reported a more positive mood and decreases in anxiety while intoxicated”, state sthe study. “There was no evidence that acute high-potency cannabis affected participants’ implicit or explicit emotion regulation task performance.”
The findings highlight the need for further studies using larger samples to better understand the acute effects of high-potency cannabis on mental health-related processes, saying “Future research with larger samples might consider adopting this novel remote study design to assess the acute effects of high-potency cannabis use on different measures of emotion regulation and other health outcomes.”
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