INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 05 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 02:30 pm - 03:45 pm Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry \| Addiction/Dependence \| Stress/Coping \| Emotional/Social Processes Final Abstract #44 Sex Differences in Cognition Among Older Cannabis Users Reyna Hickey, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States Kathryn Thorn, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States Lisa Nunn, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States Aimee McRae-Clark, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States Andreana Benitez, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States Category: Drug/Toxin-Related Disorders (including Alcohol) Keyword 1: cognitive functioning Keyword 2: substance abuse Keyword 3: neuroimaging: structural Objective: Stress is a risk factor for incident cognitive impairment in aging. Stress has also been shown to increase consumption of cannabis among current users. Among cannabis-using older adults, post-menopausal women in particular may be at greater risk of adverse neurologic outcomes due to the loss of reproductive hormones that mitigate stress. We therefore conducted an observational cohort study to investigate sex differences in cognition, brain health, and stress among older adults who regularly use cannabis. For the purposes of this abstract, we examined sex differences in two cognitive domains implicated in cannabis use (i.e., memory and executive functions) and two global measures of brain health (i.e., total cortical and total gray matter volume), with both sets of outcomes expressed as normed z-scores to facilitate interpretation. We hypothesized that female cannabis users would have lower z-scores on these measures than male users. Participants and Methods: Participants included 47 older adults (mean age = 61.11, range = 50-75 years, 45% female) who did not endorse any cognitive deficits and regularly used cannabis, defined as using ≥4 days per week or meeting DSM-5 criteria for cannabis use disorder (and no other substance use disorders). There were no significant sex differences in age, education, years of cannabis use, or current cannabis use (estimated by grams used). Participants completed the NACC UDSv3 Neuropsychological Battery and a subset of participants (n=37, 54.1% female) completed brain MRI. Demographically-adjusted factor scores for memory and executive function (Kiselica et al., 2020) were computed for each participant. T1 MRIs were segmented using FreeSurfer v6.0 and outputs were submitted to the Normative Morphometry Image Statistics (NOMIS) tool to generate demographically-adjusted total cortical and total gray matter volumes. We ran independent samples t-tests to examine sex differences in these scores, and ran Spearman’s correlations to test for associations between cognitive domains and brain volumes by sex. Results: Male participants performed worse on both memory (d = -0.74, p < 0.05) and executive function (d = -0.77, p < 0.05) than female participants. Of note, over half of participants had memory and executive function z-scores ≤ -1, including 76% of male cannabis users with memory z-scores ≤ -1 compared to only 33% of female users with scores in this range. There were no sex differences in total cortical and total gray matter volumes. Executive function was moderately correlated with both total cortical (r = 0.43, p < 0.01) and total gray matter volume (r = 0.46, p < 0.01); these correlations held for females when disaggregating by sex but not for males. No memory-volume associations were found. Conclusions: Contrary to expectations, these findings suggest that regularly-using older adults (and male cannabis users in particular) may be at higher risk of cognitive impairment, although the absence of differences in brain volumes may mitigate the severity of this sex-specific risk. Further research should replicate these results in a larger sample and investigate potential mediating factors that influence outcomes in both older male and female cannabis users.

Poster

02/15/2024
02:30 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry | Addiction/Dependence | Stress/Coping | Emotional/Social Processes

Final Abstract #44

Sex Differences in Cognition Among Older Cannabis Users

Reyna Hickey, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States
Kathryn Thorn, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States
Lisa Nunn, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States
Aimee McRae-Clark, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States
Andreana Benitez, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States

Category: Drug/Toxin-Related Disorders (including Alcohol)

Keyword 1: cognitive functioning
Keyword 2: substance abuse
Keyword 3: neuroimaging: structural

Objective:

Stress is a risk factor for incident cognitive impairment in aging. Stress has also been shown to increase consumption of cannabis among current users. Among cannabis-using older adults, post-menopausal women in particular may be at greater risk of adverse neurologic outcomes due to the loss of reproductive hormones that mitigate stress. We therefore conducted an observational cohort study to investigate sex differences in cognition, brain health, and stress among older adults who regularly use cannabis. For the purposes of this abstract, we examined sex differences in two cognitive domains implicated in cannabis use (i.e., memory and executive functions) and two global measures of brain health (i.e., total cortical and total gray matter volume), with both sets of outcomes expressed as normed z-scores to facilitate interpretation. We hypothesized that female cannabis users would have lower z-scores on these measures than male users.

Participants and Methods:

Participants included 47 older adults (mean age = 61.11, range = 50-75 years, 45% female) who did not endorse any cognitive deficits and regularly used cannabis, defined as using ≥4 days per week or meeting DSM-5 criteria for cannabis use disorder (and no other substance use disorders). There were no significant sex differences in age, education, years of cannabis use, or current cannabis use (estimated by grams used). Participants completed the NACC UDSv3 Neuropsychological Battery and a subset of participants (n=37, 54.1% female) completed brain MRI. Demographically-adjusted factor scores for memory and executive function (Kiselica et al., 2020) were computed for each participant. T1 MRIs were segmented using FreeSurfer v6.0 and outputs were submitted to the Normative Morphometry Image Statistics (NOMIS) tool to generate demographically-adjusted total cortical and total gray matter volumes. We ran independent samples t-tests to examine sex differences in these scores, and ran Spearman’s correlations to test for associations between cognitive domains and brain volumes by sex.

Results:

Male participants performed worse on both memory (d = -0.74, p < 0.05) and executive function (d = -0.77, p < 0.05) than female participants. Of note, over half of participants had memory and executive function z-scores ≤ -1, including 76% of male cannabis users with memory z-scores ≤ -1 compared to only 33% of female users with scores in this range. There were no sex differences in total cortical and total gray matter volumes. Executive function was moderately correlated with both total cortical (r = 0.43, p < 0.01) and total gray matter volume (r = 0.46, p < 0.01); these correlations held for females when disaggregating by sex but not for males. No memory-volume associations were found.

Conclusions:

Contrary to expectations, these findings suggest that regularly-using older adults (and male cannabis users in particular) may be at higher risk of cognitive impairment, although the absence of differences in brain volumes may mitigate the severity of this sex-specific risk. Further research should replicate these results in a larger sample and investigate potential mediating factors that influence outcomes in both older male and female cannabis users.