Posts by Randi Schuster, PhD
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Cannabis Use Disorder Can Develop Soon After a Medical Marijuana Card Is Obtained
In a clinical trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, patients who obtained a medical marijuana card for pain, anxiety, or depression had almost three times higher risk of cannabis use disorder than those whose card was delayed, and they had no major improvement in symptoms—but cannabis helped patients with insomnia.
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Cannabis Abstinence Improves Memory in Young People in First Month
New research shows that halting cannabis use for thirty days can have a measurable effect on memory in adolescents and young adults. The study showed improvements in memory functions that are essential for learning.
Biography
Dr. Schuster is a licensed clinical psychologist. She received her BA from University of Maryland, College Park and her PhD in clinical psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago in 2014. In graduate school, she was funded by a NIDA National Research Service Award to study the cognitive effects of cannabis and tobacco use among at-risk young adults using ecological momentary assessment. She joined the Center for Addiction Medicine in July 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow after completing her clinical internship in neuropsychology at Mass General/Harvard Medical School. She was the recipient of the Norman Zinberg Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry and the Livingston Fellowship from Harvard Medical School as well as the Louis V. Gerstner III Research Scholar Award from Mass General. She is currently funded off of a five-year K23 from NIH-NIDA, which is examining the utility of contingency management interventions in promoting cannabis abstinence as well as the reversibility of cognitive deficits during 30 days of cannabis discontinuation among high school-aged adolescents.
