Cannabis Use and Trauma

Hicks et al. (2022) investigated risk pathways among cannabis use, interpersonal trauma exposure, and trauma-related distress and published their findings in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.  

They begin by noting that college students are at high risk for cannabis use, interpersonal trauma (IPT) exposure, and trauma-related distress (TRD). Two proposed relationships between cannabis use and trauma-related phenotypes are the self-medication (trauma/TRD → cannabis use) and high-risk (cannabis use → trauma/TRD) hypotheses. They began by collecting data in the first year fall semester and followed up in second semester of the first and second years. This is again a large sample (close to 10,000). “Results suggest that more IPT exposure increases risk for TRD and subsequent nonexperimental (use 6+ times) cannabis use, and that experimental (use 1–5 times) and nonexperimental cannabis use increases risk for IPT exposure and subsequent TRD. Both the self-medication and high-risk hypotheses were supported. Findings support a bidirectional causal relationship between cannabis use and trauma-related phenotypes.”

These findings are not surprising. As marijuana has been legalized, more children and young teens are using marijuana. These results suggest that professionals involved in both diagnosis and treatment of young people need to ask better and more thorough questions about cannabis use and trauma.