Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17673
Title: Cannabis use and anxiety: is stress the missing piece of the puzzle?
Contributor(s): Temple, Elizabeth  (author)orcid ; Driver, Matthew (author); Brown, Rhonda  (author)
Publication Date: 2014
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00168Open Access Link
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17673
Abstract: Objective: Comorbidity between anxiety and cannabis use is common yet the nature of the association between these conditions is not clear. Four theories were assessed, and a fifth hypothesis tested to determine if the misattribution of stress symptomology plays a role in the association between state-anxiety and cannabis. Methods: Three-hundred-sixteen participants ranging in age from 18 to 71 years completed a short online questionnaire asking about their history of cannabis use and symptoms of stress and anxiety. Results: Past and current cannabis users reported higher incidence of lifetime anxiety than participants who had never used cannabis; however, these groups did not differ in state-anxiety, stress, or age of onset of anxiety. State-anxiety and stress were not associated with frequency of cannabis use, but reported use to self-medicate for anxiety was positively associated with all three. Path analyses indicated two different associations between anxiety and cannabis use, pre-existing and high state-anxiety was associated with (i) higher average levels of intoxication and, in turn, acute anxiety responses to cannabis use; (ii) frequency of cannabis use via the mediating effects of stress and self-medication. Conclusion: None of the theories was fully supported by the findings. However, as cannabis users reporting self-medication for anxiety were found to be self-medicating stress symptomology, there was some support for the stress-misattribution hypothesis. With reported self-medication for anxiety being the strongest predictor of frequency of use, it is suggested that researchers, clinicians, and cannabis users pay greater attention to the overlap between stress and anxiety symptomology and the possible misinterpretation of these related but distinct conditions.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Frontiers in Psychiatry, v.5, p. 1-13
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
Place of Publication: Switzerland
ISSN: 1664-0640
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 520303 Counselling psychology
520302 Clinical psychology
520304 Health psychology
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 929999 Health not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 200201 Determinants of health
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

Files in This Item:
3 files
File Description SizeFormat 
Show full item record

SCOPUSTM   
Citations

31
checked on Mar 9, 2024

Page view(s)

1,132
checked on Mar 8, 2023
Google Media

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Items in Research UNE are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.