| Drug use associated with higher cognitive functioning in middle age |
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Scientists surveyed 9,000 British people in their early 40s, asking them about their lifetime drug use and testing their cognitive skills. The scientists found that people who had used drugs actually had better cognitive skills at middle age than those who had not used them. This evidence is contrary to the idea that drugs such as cannabis do long term damage to the brain. This surprised the authors who had expected to see decreased cognitive functioning in past drug users. These results however do tie in with a similar cohort study last year which found that children with high IQs were significantly more likely to take drugs even when controlling for factors such as socio-economic background. American Journal of Epidemiology (Journal paper): http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/12/21/aje.kwr315.abstract ISCD (Article on previous study): http://www.drugscience.org.uk/clever-children-more-likely-to-use-drugs.html |