Cannabis and alcohol use, affect and impulsivity in psychiatric out-patients' daily lives.
Cannabis and alcohol are the most commonly used (il)licit drugs world-wide. We compared the effects of cannabis and alcohol use on within-person changes in impulsivity, hostility and positive affect at the momentary and daily levels, as they occurred in daily life.



Observational study involving ecological momentary assessments collected via electronic diaries six random times a day for 28 consecutive days.



Out-patients' everyday life contexts in Columbia, MO, USA.



Ninety-three adult psychiatric out-patients (85% female; mean = 30.9 years old) with borderline personality or depressive disorders, who reported using only cannabis (n = 3), only alcohol (n = 58) or both (n = 32) at least once during the study period.



Real-time, standard self-report measures of impulsivity, hostility and positive affect, as impacted by momentary reports of cannabis and alcohol use.



Cannabis use was associated with elevated feelings of impulsivity at the day level [b = 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.17-1.49] and increased hostility at the momentary (b = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.01-0.12) and person (b = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.15-1.47) level. Alcohol use was associated with elevated feelings of impulsivity at the momentary (b = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.13-0.71) and day levels (b = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.22-1.41) and increased positive affect at the momentary (b = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.06-0.18) and day (b = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.16-0.49) levels.



Cannabis and alcohol use are associated with increases in impulsivity (both), hostility (cannabis) and positive affect (alcohol) in daily life, and these effects are part of separate processes that operate on different time-scales (i.e. momentary versus daily).
University of Missouri and Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Columbia, MO, USA. trullt@missouri.edu.
Timothy J
TJ
Trull
University of Missouri and Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Columbia, MO, USA.
Andrea M
AM
Wycoff
University of Missouri and Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Columbia, MO, USA.
Sean P
SP
Lane
University of Missouri and Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Columbia, MO, USA.
Ryan W
RW
Carpenter
Research Institute on Addiction, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Whitney C
WC
Brown
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D000074609:Marijuana Use / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008923:Missouri; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
Alcohol; borderline personality disorder; cannabis; depressive disorder; ecological momentary assessment; hostility; impulsivity; marijuana; positive affect