STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF CANNABIS USE ON PERCEPTUAL AND MEMORY PROCESSES AS WELL AS ON POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Background: Material/ Methods: Results: Conclusions: Cannabis, as the most widely used illicit substance in the world, also remains among the most frequently used psychoactive sub-stances by patients with schizophrenia. It is well known that can -nabis use in schizophrenia patients favors relapse, resistance to antipsychotic treatments and therefore more frequent hospitaliza-tions. However, many studies report considerable improvement in cognitive performance in substance users, while others show the opposite. Hence, the aim of our study is to examine the relationship between schizophrenia and cannabis use in clinical and socio-de-mographic aspects. This is a cross-sectional study of patients with schizophrenia ho -spitalized for relapse at the Ar-Razi psychiatric hospital in Sale, Mo-rocco. A questionnaire was established in order to search for socio-demographic data, evolutionary and prognostic criteria of the dis-ease. Cannabis use was assessed using the Cannabis Abuse Screening Test (CAST), for the severity of schizophrenia symptoms we used the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and for perceptual and memory abilities we used the numerical version of the Rey's Complex Figure-A (RCF-A). It was found that in a sample of 115 schizophrenic patients, 47.82% (n=55) were cannabis users. The mean PANSS (negative) and (ge-neral psychopathology) scores of non-cannabis users were signifi-cantly higher than those of cannabis users with P values of (P < 0.001) and (P < 0.005) respectively. For the numerical assessment scores of the RCF-A, cannabis users had a significantly higher mean score than non-cannabis users (copy phase (P < 0.016) and memory (P < 0.001) As one of the leading risk factors for the emergence of schizophre-nia, chronic cannabis use also has a negative influence on the prognosis of patients already suffering from schizophrenia. Never-theless, the results of our study show that cannabis-using schizo-phrenic patients had fewer negative symptoms according to the PANSS and an improved cognitive performance compared to non -cannabis-using patients.

Automated summary

This study examined the relationship between schizophrenia and cannabis use, and found that cannabis-using schizophrenic patients had fewer negative symptoms and improved cognitive performance compared to non-cannabis-using patients.