Real-time data provides nuanced look at likelihood of cannabis use
Research from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology using ecological momentary assessments (surveys given through smartphone apps) shows that people with preexisting cannabis use problems consume more when in the company of others. Photo courtesy of Pexels
Substance use, including cannabis, is not one-size-fits-all. Some people might consume more in the company of others or in certain situations or locations.
Research from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology examines these nuances by leveraging the smartphone most of us carry. This work relies on sending surveys, called ecological momentary assessments, or EMAs, that prompt people to report where they are, what they are doing and what is happening in that moment.
“Ecological momentary assessments let us get out of the lab and into people’s real lives,” said Jack Waddell, assistant professor of psychology. “Instead of asking people to remember details about their cannabis use, EMAs capture those details as cannabis use is unfolding.”
Waddell recently led a study, published in Addiction, that used EMAs to study cannabis use. The study showed that craving is an important indicator of continued cannabis use — but not for everyone.
“Craving is an important moment-to-moment signal of cannabis use, but social context shaped this process differently depending on the severity of a person’s cannabis problems,” Waddell said.
Real-life cannabis use
The study included 104 participants who used a cellphone app to respond to EMAs over a 14-day period. Each day, the participants completed four surveys that asked questions about where they were, who they were with, how they were feeling in general, whether they were craving cannabis and whether they had consumed any cannabis, alcohol or cigarettes since their last report.
In addition to those daily EMAs, participants were asked to indicate in the app when they started using cannabis. The app then asked them who they were with, the type of cannabis product they were using and to rate their level of craving on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a lot). The app then followed up with the participants 1.5 and 3 hours later to ask whether they had continued using cannabis.
Waddell explained that this setup was to address the discrepancy between what addiction scientists understand in relation to long-term effects and risks of cannabis use and what actually happens when someone is using cannabis. The goal of this study was to examine how the environment — who someone is with, where they are and what is happening — affects how people use cannabis.
“Among people who already had more severe cannabis use problems, being in a social context was associated with greater craving, and that greater craving was then associated with a higher likelihood of continuing to use cannabis,” Waddell said.
EMAs and substance use interventions
The study findings also suggest that EMAs could lead to improved substance use interventions and treatments.
“I think this kind of fine-grained, real-time data can give us much more translatable information about when substance use risk emerges, why it emerges and where we might be able to intervene,” Waddell said.
In the future, Waddell envisions that geospatial location from someone’s phone could identify when they have entered a location or environment that is associated with social cannabis use. He added that this type of information could create opportunities to go beyond just responding to craving and to instead intervene before it starts.
“The ultimate goal would be to use information from EMAs to identify times and contexts when we can deliver interventions in real time to the right person and at the right moment,” Waddell said.
William Corbin, professor of psychology at ASU, and researchers from Brown University also contributed to this research. The study was funded by the Sharon Manne Research Fund at ASU.
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