Cannabis Abstinence During Treatment and One-Year Follow-Up: Relationship to Neural Activity in Men

Cannabis is among the most frequently abused substances in the United States. Cognitive control is a contributory factor in the maintenance of substance-use disorders and may relate to treatment response. Therefore, we assessed whether cognitive-control-related neural activity before treatment differs between treatment-seeking cannabis-dependent and healthy individuals and relates to cannabis-abstinence measures during treatment and I-year follow-up. Cannabis-dependent males (N = 20) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cognitive-control (Stroop) task before a 12-week randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy and/or contingency management A healthy-comparison group (N = 20) also completed the fMRI task. Cannabis use was assessed by urine toxicology and self-report during treatment, and by self-report across a I-year follow-up period (N = 18). The cannabis-dependent group displayed diminished Stroop-related neural activity relative to the healthy-comparison group in multiple regions, including those strongly implicated in cognitive-control and addiction-related processes (eg, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum). The groups did not differ significantly in response times (cannabis-dependent, N = 12; healthy-comparison, N = 14). Within the cannabis-dependent group, greater Stroop-related activity in regions including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was associated with less cannabis use during treatment Greater activity in regions including the ventral striatum was associated with less cannabis use during 1-year posttreatment follow-up. These data suggest that lower cognitive-control-related neural activity in classic 'control' regions (eg, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate) and classic 'salience/reward/learning' regions (eg, ventral striatum) differentiates cannabis-dependent individuals from healthy individuals and relates to less abstinence within-treatment and during long-term follow-up. Clinically, results suggest that treatment development efforts that focus on enhancing cognitive control in addition to abstinence may improve treatment outcomes in cannabis dependence.