Neuroscience of Marijuana Impaired Driving

 描述(由申请人提供)：醉酒驾驶大麻是一个主要的、日益严重的公共卫生问题。在美国，驾驶安全是一个重要的问题，据报道，每年有300多万人在机动车撞车事故中受伤，40000人死亡。交通事故是5-32岁青少年死亡的最大单一原因；许多是由于醉酒司机造成的。大麻(CNB)是一种常见的滥用药物，其使用跨越社会阶层，与认知障碍有关，是单独或与酒精一起醉酒引发事故的主要原因。然而，与酒精相比，CNB中毒与驾驶的关系研究很少。目前的NHTSA行为研究战略计划不仅将了解酒精以外的药物如何导致交通事故列为优先事项，而且最近也变得更加迫切地了解CNB的影响，因为合法医疗和/或娱乐使用的比率增加，这可能会导致更多CNB醉酒司机。 如果没有新的研究来更好地确定使用CNB会增加或不会增加汽车事故风险的参数，社会和法律政策将无法有效地解决因更频繁和更广泛地使用CNB而引起的许多对驾驶安全的担忧。我们的目的是更好地描述由急性CNB中毒引起的特定的、与驾驶相关的认知障碍，它们随时间的持续，潜在的大脑功能解剖，以及与我们先前经验的最先进验证的模拟驾驶任务的表现的关系。我们将以随机、平衡、双盲的方式，在3个不同的场合给48名经常吸食大麻的人和48名偶尔吸食大麻的人服用两次CNB剂量和安慰剂的吸烟大麻(使用雾化器进行步调吸入)。在服用CNB后，我们将使用功能磁共振成像和神经心理测试相结合的方法，对认知和驾驶损害进行几个小时的纵向评估，以澄清醉酒和损害的主观和客观措施之间的关系，其中包括对THC及其血液和唾液中代谢物水平的专家评估。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Driving while intoxicated on cannabis is a major and growing public health problem. Driving safety is an important issue in the United States as more than 3 million persons are reported injured and >40,000 die annually in motor vehicle crashes. Traffic accidents are the greatest single cause of death in 5-32 year-olds; many are due to intoxicated drivers. Cannabis (CNB) is a commonly abused drug whose use cuts across social class, is linked to cognitive impairment, is a major contributor to intoxication-related accidents either alone or with alcohol. However, CNB intoxication is little studied in relation to driving compared to alcohol. Not only does the current NHTSA Strategic Plan for Behavioral Research prioritize understanding how drugs other than alcohol contribute to traffic crashes, it has recentl become more pressing to understand the effects of CNB because of increasing rates of legalized medical and/or recreational use, that will likely result in more CNB intoxicated drivers. Social and legal policy will be unable to effectively address the many concerns about driving safety raised by more frequent and widespread use of CNB without new research to better determine the parameters within which CNB use does, or does not, increase automobile accident risk. Our purpose is to better describe specific, driving-related cognitive impairments caused by acute CNB intoxication, their persistence over time, underlying functional brain anatomy, and relationship to performance on a state-of the art validated simulated driving task in which we have prior experience. In a randomized, counterbalanced, double-blinded fashion, we will administer two CNB doses and placebo of smoked cannabis (paced inhalation using a vaporizer) to 48 regular and 48 occasional cannabis users on 3 separate occasions. Following CNB dosing we will assess cognitive and driving impairment longitudinally for several hours using a combination of fMRI and neuropsychological tests, to clarify relationships between subjective and objective measures of intoxication and of impairment, that include expert assessment of THC and its metabolite levels in blood and saliva.