Physiological stress modulation of neural drug cue reactivity in cannabis use disorder.

OBJECTIVE

Rates of daily cannabis use and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are increasing in the United States. Prominent addiction theories suggest that stress potentiation of drug cue incentive salience is a central feature of disordered versus recreational drug use, which has been corroborated using a neurophysiological index of drug cue incentive salience (i.e., the late positive potential [LPP]) in adults who regularly use cannabis. However, the mechanism through which acute stress potentiates the cannabis LPP in CUD is unclear.

METHOD: To address this gap, cannabis LPPs were measured before and after a stress induction in 95 adults who regularly use cannabis. Physiological (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis, heart rate, skin conductance) and subjective stress reactivity were also measured.

RESULTS

Based on prior work, we hypothesized that cortisol stress reactivity would predict poststress cannabis LPP enhancement in more severe CUD. The hypothesis was supported and specific to HPA-axis versus autonomic or subjective stress reactivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Acute stress potentiation of the cannabis LPP, likely via HPA-axis activation, may be a biomarker of heavy/disordered cannabis use in adults who regularly use cannabis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).