Kayla Fontaine

Grace Tan

 

 

Research Question : Can the intake of marijuana decrease feelings of anxiety and depression in adolescents in the United States?

Background Information:

Many people with amotivational syndrome are usually associated with heavy marijuana use.  In a study of adolescents in treatment programs, between 40% and 50% of the patients have depression.  “This study has demonstrated that heavy users of marijuana with depressive symptoms in the last year were the only group who exhibited low Achievement Motivation. These data are consistent with the fact that depression and learned helplessness are common problems which interfere with motivation to achieve in the absence of marijuana, alcohol and other drug use” (Musty, 2156).  Another study found that marijuana abstinence was associated with higher levels of depression (Allen, 302) and that marijuana users have increased positive well-being compared to non-users (Allen, 314).

Approximately 9000 people replied to an email request sent to drug policy organizations, in an effort to target a range of cannabis users. The 4494 people who used daily, once a week or less, or never (2834 men (63%), 1660 women (37%), mean age = 32.19, SD = 12.92 years) had a median education of some college without a degree, and a median income of $20,000 to $40,000 per year. Respondents were primarily Caucasian (87%), but included African Americans (1%), Native Americans (3%), Asians (3%), Latinos (4%), and people of mixed race (2%). Those who used cannabis began at a mean age of 16.8 (SD = 4.3).

Trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and sensation seeking are three personality risk factors that led to marijuana use. Trait anxiety involves the general tendency to experience anxiety symptoms across a wide variety of stressful situations .Although anxiety sensitivity is correlated with trait anxiety, the two constructs are conceptually and empirically distinct (McNally, 1996). Anxiety sensitivity involves a specific fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations due to beliefs that such sensations will lead to catastrophic outcomes such as physical illness, social embarrassment, or loss of mental control. Sensation seeking is a personality factor that refers to the desire for intense and novel experiences (Zuckerman, 1994). After studying a sample  that consisted of 508 adolescents (238 female, 270 male) from five secondary (junior and senior high) public schools in the Annapolis Valley School Board in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was found that trait anxiety  had a positive correlation with marijuana use.

In another article researching middle school students it was found that those who smoked marijuana more had more symptoms of depression. In fact 37% of students who used marijuana reported 31 to 78 depression symptoms.

 

Method :

To present this experiment, there would be a group of 3 clusters (middle school, high school-college, and post college grads) from Queens, New York. For the students, we will divide the schools into private and public and randomly choose 3 from each. As for the post grad we will choose from databases of colleges we did not choose for the college cluster.  All students in each of the schools will be invited but only 300 will be chosen at random for each cluster.  The students and post grads will questioned through surveys and polls that can be taken online. This eliminates any bias of people seeing their answers. We will have monthly check ups with each participant to observe their feelings, marijuana intake and if there has been any improvement in depression or anxiety. We will check up on them over the course of a year (12 checkups) . We will need to control intake and group them in terms of their daily dosage. This will be done by having them fill out a daily log that we have access to at all times. We must also ensure we have an equal amount of males and females from multiple ethnicities. We must also make sure that they are not taking any other prescription/non prescription drugs.  While analyzing our results we will take into consideration extraneous variables such as being in school vs post grad and family backgrounds as well as other responsibilities.

 

 

Citation:

Allen, Jadie, and Mark D. Holder. “Marijuana Use and Well-Being in University Students.”Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, pp. 301–321., doi:10.1007/s10902-013-9423-1.

Comeau, Nancy, et al. “The Relations of Trait Anxiety, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Sensation Seeking to Adolescents’ Motivations for Alcohol, Cigarette, and Marijuana Use.”Addictive Behaviors, vol. 26, no. 6, 2001, pp. 803–825., doi:10.1016/s0306-4603(01)00238-6.

Kedler, Steven H. “Depression and Substance Use in Minority Middle-School Students.”American Journal of Public Health, vol. 91, no. 5, 2001, pp. 761–766., doi:10.2105/ajph.91.5.761.

Musty, Richard E., and Lee Kaback. “Relationships between Motivation and Depression in Chronic Marijuana Users.” Life Sciences, vol. 56, no. 23-24, 5 May 1995, pp. 2151–2158., doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(95)00202-H.