How positive emotions may shape cannabis-related problems

Growing work underscores the importance of understanding disturbances in positive valence or emotional processes in psychopathology. Despite evidence that substance use disorders, such as cannabis misuse, are associated with positive emotion processes, few studies have examined associations between cannabis use and clinically relevant disorders that centrally feature positive emotions (such as bipolar spectrum disorders) and associated positive emotion processes. The present study investigates associations between self-reported cannabis use and bipolar spectrum disorder (BSD) risk and mood severity, as well as three well-studied positive valence processes (i.e., positive emotion experience, reward responsiveness, and positive emotion valuation). Emerging adult college students who endorsed cannabis use (N = 968) were recruited from nine North American universities. Higher self-reported BSD risk was associated with greater cannabis-related interference with daily life, but not cannabis use frequency or difficulty stopping. Furthermore, higher positive emotion experience was associated with lower cannabis frequency, interference with life, and difficulty stopping. Greater reward responsiveness was associated with decreased cannabis interference in daily life. These findings highlight the importance of clinically relevant and basic positive emotion-relevant processes in understanding cannabis use.