Marijuana use over time was associated with remembering fewer words from a list but it did not appear to affect other areas of cognitive function in a study of men and women followed up over 25 years, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Marijuana use is common among adolescents and young adults. It remains unclear whether there are long-term effects from low-intensity or occasional marijuana use earlier in life and whether the magnitude and persistence of impairment depends on the duration of marijuana use or the age of exposure.

Past exposure to marijuana was associated with worse verbal memory but does not appear to affect other domains of cognitive function. For every five years of past exposure, lower verbal memory corresponded to an average of 1 of 2 participants remembering one word fewer from a list of 15 words, according to the results.

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