Cannabiskonsum wird bei Menschen mit bipolarer Störung mit besseren Entscheidungsfähigkeiten in Verbindung gebracht. Diese kognitiven Vorteile waren hauptsächlich mit mäßigem Gebrauch verbunden. Als mäßiger Konsum wurde der Konsum von Cannabis zwischen vier und vierundzwanzig Mal pro Woche definiert.

**Cannabis use associated with better decision-making skills in people with bipolar disorder**

A new study published in Translational Psychiatry suggests that chronic cannabis use may not be associated with cognitive impairment in people with bipolar disorder, contrasting with its effects on healthy individuals. The findings indicate that people with bipolar disorder who use cannabis moderately may possess better decision-making skills than those with the disorder who do not use the drug. This research offers a potential explanation for why many individuals with this condition turn to cannabis for symptom management.

The results showed a clear divergence between the healthy participants and those with bipolar disorder. Healthy participants who used cannabis performed worse on the gambling task than healthy non-users. This confirms previous research showing that cannabis tends to impair decision-making in the general population.

However, the pattern was reversed for the participants with bipolar disorder. Those who did not use cannabis exhibited deficits in decision-making. They frequently chose from the risky decks and failed to adjust their strategy after losing money.

In contrast, the participants with bipolar disorder who used cannabis performed better. Their scores were not only higher than the non-using bipolar group, but they were also comparable to the healthy non-users. This suggests that cannabis use was associated with a normalization of decision-making abilities in this specific clinical population.

The researchers also analyzed the frequency of use. **They found that these cognitive benefits were primarily associated with moderate use. Moderate use was defined as using cannabis between four and twenty-four times per week**. Heavy use, defined as twenty-five times or more per week, was associated with worse performance.

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-025-03718-4

I’m sorry, I am ALL for recreational cannabis use, but haven’t there been multiple studies indicating that moderate to heavy usage in people with mental health issues can cause psychiatric breakdowns?

I only have personal experience with people in the ER that clearly should not have been taking any mind altering substances due to previous/already established mental health issues, but that’s just anecdotal and not a controlled environment.

Thats…quite the range for normal use. Im certainly not one to judge. Just quite a range there. It’s honestly quite sad to think about.

Bipolar here, I find cannabis helps calm me down in my more manic moments (STRAIN IS SO IMPORTANT, some can make it WORSE, keep that in mind!) And keep me uplifted and sane in-between those states.
Being bipolar feels kinda like you involuntarily go insane (to varying degrees) and then you snap out of it.

I can see why regular use can help!

Good advice for people in this sub that see this headline. Always go to the article and look at their source and go read it.
Almost everytime theres an article posted either the op is misunderstanding or the article is misunderstanding the findings.

Its at least 50% of the time I see a crazy attention grabbing headline that it turns out the study doesnt support the title.

This one does for the record its good

>Moderate use was defined as using cannabis between four

… seems reasonable…

>and twenty-four times per week.

… what???

How do you have time to do anything 24 times a week? If you do it twice a day that’s 14. You need to be doing something between three and four times a day to do it 24 times a week. How is that „moderate“ use?

‚You look wasted, how many joints have you smoked today?‘

‚Between four and twenty-four‘