ArticleBrain and behavior2021
Impaired awareness: Why people with multiple sclerosis continue using cannabis despite evidence to the contrary.
Article in Brain and behavior, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telehealth tDCS to reduce cannabis use: A pilot RCT in multiple sclerosis as a framework for generalized use.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- Evaluating Cross-Sectional Associations Between Cannabis Use and Prospective Memory in People with HIV.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- The unmet need for cannabis use disorder treatment in multiple sclerosis: Insights from a nationwide pilot study.Multiple sclerosis and related disorders · 2025Article
- Differences in metacognition between multiple sclerosis phenotypes: cognitive impairment and fatigue are key factors.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Impaired awareness: Why people with multiple sclerosis continue using cannabis despite evidence to the contrary.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWith widespread moves toward legalization of cannabis, increasing numbers of people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) are using the drug. Emerging MS-related data show that cannabis can cause or exacerbate cognitive dysfunction.
objectiveTo understand why people with MS continue using cannabis despite adverse cognitive consequences. It was hypothesized that lack of awareness, a component of metacognition, could explain this decision, in part.
methodForty pwMS who smoked cannabis almost daily were assigned by odd-even case number selection to either a cannabis continuation (CC) or cannabis withdrawal (CW) group. Both groups were followed for 28 days. All participants completed, at baseline and day 28, the brief repeatable battery of neuropsychological tests (BRNB) in MS for measures of processing speed, memory and executive function; Modified fatigue impact scale (mFIS) for self-report indices of cognitive functioning.
resultsNo significant baseline differences between the groups on the BRNB and mFIS. At day 28, significant improvement within group was seen on all measures of the BRNB, but only in the CW group (p = .0001 for all indices). A repeat measure ANOVA did not find any significant group (CC vs. CW) × time (baseline and day 28) interactions for the self-report cognitive measures on the mFIS. Cannabis abstainers did report less ability to function away from home. All 19 participants in the CW group reverted to using cannabis on study completion despite being informed individually of their cognitive improvement. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The inability of pwMS to accurately appraise their memory and executive function can help explain, in part, why they continue to smoke cannabis despite objective evidence of the deleterious cognitive side effects of this behavior.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.