Psychometric exploration of motivational deficit in marijuana users

Abstract

It is common to find marijuana users with alterations in motivation, in clinical practice. Several studies have found evidence about a possible amotivational syndrome in marijuana users, both from the analysis of behavior and from the neurological examination. However, the existence of such a syndrome associated with the use of marijuana has not been firmly established, among other reasons, due to the concurrence of factors such as depression and the use of other drugs that may lead to inadequate generalization of the situation of some consumers of the substance and due to methodological difficulties in research aimed at establishing whether or not there is a decrease in the general motivation associated with the use of marijuana. Likewise, the decrease in motivation could be the result of the disorder by substances rather than by the consumption of marijuana. Due to the growing use of marijuana in the world, the study of its consequences is of the greatest importance, for the design of better treatments for people with substance use disorders. The aim of this study was to obtain evidence about the existence or not of deficiencies in the motivation of marijuana users. In addition, we sought to establish which are the characteristic behaviors that show this possible reduction of motivation. A battery of questions was constructed from a systematic literature review in PubMed, Lilacs, MedLine, Cochrane library, Embase, Science Direct and Bibliomed, using as terms "amotivational syndrome", "amotivation cannabis", "amotivation marijuana", "comorbidity cannabis", "comorbidity marijuaba", "mental disorders and cannabis", "cannabis and mental consequences", "amotivation and drug use". Likewise users. In addition, an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to identify possible groupings of the characteristic symptoms of a reduction in motivation. Our Results and conclusions show that it was estimated that 54.9 % of the participants would have a serious disorder due to the use of marijuana; 54.0 % presented symptoms of affective flattening, and 60.9 % would be marijuana users with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The average number of cigarettes consumed per month would be 44.5. Using the Rasch model it was established that, with the constructed set of questions, it was possible to identify a dimension or factor coinciding with a motivational deficiency. Using the exploratory factor analysis, it was found that the characteristic behaviors could be grouped into four possible subdimensions: emotional apathy; social withdrawal; neglect of personal image and motor slowdown.