New App Tests Consumers’ Cannabis Influence
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]here’s an app for everything, and researchers are tweaking a prototype they hope will shed more light on the personal effects of cannabis consumption.
“Am I Stoned” is a prototype app developed by a research team at the University of Chicago. It is designed to help cannabis consumers gain greater self-awareness of the substance’s effects on their cognitive and motor functions through a series of phone-based tasks. A simple test of tapping speed can help concerned consumers gauge their impairment from cannabis use.
During this year’s Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego, Elisa Pabon, a University of Chicago doctoral student, presented results from the team’s initial testing efforts to fellow scientists at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics meeting—one of five host society meetings held at the annual event.
“The effects of THC on performance may be subtle, so we need highly sensitive tasks to detect impairments,” said Pabon. “It is likely that the computer tasks, which took 15 to 20 minutes to complete, were more sensitive to THC impairment because they provided more opportunity to detect a drug effect.”
The University of Chicago team asked 24 healthy non-daily cannabis consumers to take a placebo or up to 15 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical compound responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis. The study participants then completed both standardized computer and app-based tasks, intended to detect impairments which could be used for future assessments in a more natural setting. Participants were subjected to a randomized control trial, so neither the participants, nor the researchers were aware of who was given the placebo or THC.
“One of our long-term goals is for the app to improve the safety of cannabis use by making individual users more aware of their impairment,” said research team leader Harriet de Wit, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. “By gathering data from users in the field, the app will also contribute to the overall scientific knowledge in terms of how cannabis affects users.”
Initial testing results showed successful detection of impairments from three of the four computer-based tasks and one of the app-based tasks. Results also indicated that consumers were largely aware of their impairment.
The researchers successfully detected impairments from THC using three of the four computer tasks and one of the iPhone tasks. The study also showed that consumers were generally aware of their impairment. The UChicago team also helps to use their findings in the development of an app that will predict a person’s ability to drive or function in hazardous situations based on findings recorded when they were sober.
