Pot may hike risk of psychosis, research finds
 

Even limited use could up chance of serious mental illness by 40 percent

Updated: 6:59 p.m. ET July 26, 2007
LONDON - Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.

The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.

Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana’s long-term risks. The research, paid for by the British Health Department, is being published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The available evidence now suggests that cannabis is not as harmless as many people think,” said Dr. Stanley Zammit, one of the study’s authors and a lecturer in the department of psychological medicine at Cardiff University.

The researchers said they couldn’t prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk of psychosis, a category of several disorders with schizophrenia being the most commonly known.

There could be something else about marijuana users, “like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses,” Zammit said.

Thousands tracked
Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal substance in many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. About 20 percent of young adults report using it at least once a week, according to government statistics.

Zammit and colleagues from the University of Bristol, Imperial College and Cambridge University examined 35 studies that tracked tens of thousands of people for periods ranging from one year to 27 years to examine the effect of marijuana on mental health.

They looked for psychotic illnesses as well as cognitive disorders including delusions and hallucinations, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, neuroses and suicidal tendencies.

They found that people who used marijuana had roughly a 40 percent higher chance of developing a psychotic disorder later in life. The overall risk remains very low.

For example, Zammit said the risk of developing schizophrenia for most people is less than 1 percent. The prevalence of schizophrenia is believed to be about five in 1,000 people. But because of the drug’s wide popularity, the researchers estimate that about 800 new cases of psychosis could be prevented by reducing marijuana use.

Disturbing outlook
The scientists found a more disturbing outlook for “heavy users” of pot, those who used it daily or weekly: Their risk for psychosis jumped to a range of 50 percent to 200 percent.

One doctor noted that people with a history of mental illness in their families could be at higher risk. For them, marijuana use “could unmask the underlying schizophrenia,” said Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University, who was not involved in the study.

Dr. Wilson Compton, a senior scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington, called the study persuasive.

“The strongest case is that there are consistencies across all of the studies,” and that the link was seen only with psychoses — not anxiety, depression or other mental health problems, he said.

Scientists cannot rule out that pre-existing conditions could have led to both marijuana use and later psychoses, he added.

Dispel the misconception
Scientists think it is biologically possible that marijuana could cause psychoses because it interrupts important neurotransmitters such as dopamine. That can interfere with the brain’s communication systems.

Some experts say governments should now work to dispel the misconception that marijuana is a benign drug.

** I would just like to say that this article clearly shows that “scientists” aka.. political positions and propaganda are once again trying to link cannabis to anything and everything they can to distort its image.

“The researchers said they couldn’t prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk of psychosis, a category of several disorders with schizophrenia being the most commonly known.
There could be something else about marijuana users, “like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses,” Zammit said.”

** I love how they follow this paragraph by indicating worldwide usage. I thought this was about psychosis? :crazyeye:

you smoke it, and have a crazy time

whateves.

*lights one up*


;)

there is some truth to this article...

for example, I had a friend who had schizophrenia in his family history... he never suffered any symptoms himself until he came into contact with pot smoking in uni. (again this is prob just coincidence though)

also, i know that myself, i can't smoke it because it makes me go super crazy. other substances have minimal effect on me but pot just screws me up terribly (i forget where i am, time slows down and i get stuck in an almost comatose trance for an hour or two or i almost instantly fall asleep only to wake up with extreme paranoia and i can't remember anything like where i am or how i got there.) and it's not an isolated case either. i've tried it about 20 to 30 times over that past decade and a half. always terrible side effects for me...

any time you take any type of (legal, perscription or illegal narcotic) drug that alters you brain chemistry (even temporarily), there's always some type of risk of screwing things up a little... c'est la vie. any person that doesn't see this is deluding themselves. we know the risks and we do it anyways... that's fine because it is our choice but I wouldn't call it propaganda when scientists are bringing these suspicions to the public's attention.

that said, there is also a possibility that many of the problems that are speculated to be caused from longterm pot use might be caused because there is no quality control of illegaly sold marijuana. if pot were completely legal and there were strict laws concerning the cultivation and distribution of marijuana and you could buy it at like an LCBO or MCBO store or something, maybe there would be fewer suspected side effects...


also this sentence: "There could be something else about marijuana users, “like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses,” Zammit said."

That's prob the most accurate in the article. People with certain types of untreated mental illness may be more likely to take part in drug use in general.

i just don't know what to make of this...


i think the people they are dealing with were already in the mental health system... and were most likely predispositioned to self medicate themselves with drugs like marijuana...

i definitely agree that marijuana may be a trigger for psychosis related affect, however i'm not sure to what extent...

this study interests me...

i want to know more

yeah, I'd like to read the actual paper because that will fully cover their research methods and the statistical analysis of their data. :)

That said, I do know of MANY people with mental illness who use drugs as a way of self medication instead of seeking proper medical attention (at one time i was included in that group), and they also tend to be the ones who abuse them as opposed to recreationally smoking/using other drugs once in a while.

i know a few people who claim that pot helps them with their problems as well. (whether or not it's true is another thing but if they claim it, i'm inclined to believe them...)

i'm sure there can be positives and negatives to pot smoking. (if there are positive aspects to pot smoking, not all meds are good for every disorder obviously)

pot makes people paranoid and now on to sports