A Review of Contemporary Research on the Influence of Tetrahydrocannabinol on Higher Mental Functions

Abstract

Currently cannabis is the most frequently used psychoactive substance, so the impact of cannabis on public health, particularly on the central nervous system, is a hot topic for research. This review aims to answer two questions: what are consequences of cannabis use and how stable are they? There are only a few studies of cannabis use in Russia. Foreign studies show mainly disorders of executive function and working memory in cannabinoid users. However, approaches used in foreign studies substantially differ from qualitative studies of higher mental functions which are specific to Russian neuropsychology. The majority of works are devoted to the study of the acute effects, and much less attention is given to long-term effects of cannabis. But growing evidence suggests that deficits of higher mental functions persist at least a month after the last dose of the drug after cannabis use is discontinued. In our opinion the use of the syndromic analysis through qualitative and quantitative studies would be effective for the investigation of possible disorders of higher mental functions in cannabinoid users and would answer the question of how stable these disorders are.