Monica Luciana Receives Grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
We are excited to share that Monica Luciana, faculty, has received a $3,289,311 NIH R01 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), funding the project “Neurobehavioral Impacts of Medical Cannabis Use: An Observational Study.”
Dr. Angela Birnbaum, Ph.D. in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology is co-PI on the project. Luciana summarizes the research project: Despite millions of active prescriptions for medical cannabis in the United States, relatively little is known about its impacts on behavior, neural function, and pharmacology. This project measures neurobehavioral function and drug exposure with an emphasis on learning, memory, and executive functions at two time points, pre-treatment and four months post-treatment initiation, in adult-onset medical cannabis users who are prescribed cannabis products for the treatment of chronic pain. Behavioral and neuroimaging findings, as well as assessments of efficacy, are expected to inform public health and policy-based initiatives regarding the impacts of THC- versus CBD-dominant forms of cannabis in adult initiates who are otherwise cannabis naive.
Monica Luciana, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, director of the Luciana Lab, and Principal Investigator within the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (MCTFR).
Composed by Madison Stromberg, communications assistant.
