# Social cognition in young adults who endorse a cannabis use disorder

## TL;DR

This study investigates whether young adults with cannabis use disorder have impaired social cognition, such as emotion recognition and memory, compared to controls.

## Contribution

The study provides new evidence that social cognition may not be significantly impaired in individuals with cannabis use disorder when accounting for various confounding factors.

## Key findings

- No significant effects of cannabis use disorder on social cognition were found.
- Younger age and higher education or IQ may protect against social cognition alterations.
- Replication is needed to confirm the role of protective factors like education and IQ.

## Abstract

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) affects over 50 million people globally. Emerging evidence shows that some people with CUD may experience altered social cognition (e.g., emotion recognition or differentiation). These impairments can affect their ability to understand others’ emotional states and navigate social interactions, potentially contributing to chronic cannabis use, even when it leads to interpersonal problems. However, the literature on social cognition in cannabis users is inconsistent, based on a paucity of studies, and characterised by methodological issues including conflation of remitted and current CUD (i.e., does not consider abstinence effects on cognition), limited assessment of cannabis metrics (e.g., dosage) and confounds entrenched with CUD (e.g., nicotine/alcohol use, anxiety).

We aimed to examine social cognition (i.e., emotion recognition and differentiation, immediate/delayed face memory) in relation to endorsement of CUD (n = 83) vs. controls (n = 32), and measures of level of problematic cannabis use (i.e., Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test – Revised; CUDIT-R) and dosage (i.e., cannabis grams/past month), accounting for hours since last cannabis use, nicotine/alcohol use, and trait anxiety.

There were no significant effects of CUD (d = 0–0.314) or dosage and level of problematic cannabis use on social cognition.

Altered social cognition may not be a key feature of CUD, or the relationship between CUD and cognition may be moderated by factors such as age, treatment seeking, education, and IQ. In this study, younger age and higher education or IQ may have served as protective factors against social alterations. Replication studies are required to validate this notion.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-025-06890-z.