Research suggests people who often use cannabis start their day with higher cortisol levels than people who don't, indicating a relationship between frequent cannabis use and a possible dysregulation of the body's daily stress rhythms.
The Oregon State University researchers note that stress is a primary motivation to use cannabis and is linked with problematic use. While cannabis may provide short-term stress relief, its chronic use might negatively affect stress-response systems over time, they say.
Led by Anita Cservenka of the OSU College of Liberal Arts, the study, published in the journal Cannabis, is one of the few to examine the link between frequent cannabis use and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the major neuroendocrine system that governs the body's response to stress.
The findings are important because in the United States, 29% of adults ages 19–30 report having used cannabis in the previous 30 days, a figure that has nearly doubled over the past 15 years. More than 10% of that age group report using cannabis 20 or more times in 30 days—more than twice the percentage seen 15 years ago, the scientists say.
Cservenka emphasizes that the research doesn't prove frequent cannabis use causes people to wake up with higher cortisol levels, or vice versa. "We would need to study the same groups of people over a longer period of time to understand any cause-and-effect relationship, but we think this provides an important starting point," she said.
