Evidence Accumulates for Links Between Marijuana and Psychosis

Medscape ^ | 03/26/2010 | Michael T. Compton, MD, MPH

[Daisyjane69]

The only reason I have the Libertarian “bent” that pot should be legalized is this:

I spent an entire summer working on a Master Gardener project in “the projects.” When it finally hits you, that the only people in these impoverished areas who seem well off are the F*CKING DRUG DEALERS, you change your tune. This is not unlike the Mafia (and I’m full blooded Italian, btw) that used to pin money on the statue of the Virgin Mary during the Feast of the Assumption.

It is a dangerous tragedy when in certain neighborhoods of this country, that the only people with money and able to give charity are the DRUG DEALERS. This is a complete replication of Prohibition. And these bastards use this lure to grab youngsters to do their bidding.

Just as the end of Prohibition ended their murderous and profitable reign, we need to end the criminalization of pot. Which, btw, I tried one time (about a hundred years ago during a Super Bowl party). I fell asleep afterwards and missed the outcome of the game. Getting high? Really? Somehow, the smell of an Egyptian’s sandal in the middle of July would have been like Chanel No. 5 compared to that “fragrance.”

[ravingnutter]

no it is marijuana induced... and here is the great part... the onset can come years after someone stops. The users that have heard think... oh if that happens I will just stop... unfortunately its too late, no cure for that, just controlling symptoms the rest of your life....

Wow...you have been watching wa-a-ay too many reruns of Reefer Madness.

[rod1]

One out in physics....just name a new particle for what one cannot explain.

[-YYZ-]

Yep, as is often said:

Correlation does not equal causation. Particularly where the correlation is not especially strong.

And without a proven mechanism, that’s all we’ve got - a statistical correlation. Just like those news stories you see all that time when they say that people who consume X or do Y have a 10% higher chance of developing disease Z - a 10% correlation is very weak, bordering on statistical noise. Having said that, it wouldn’t at all surprise me that long term use of any psychoactive substance could have deleterious effects on people’s mental state, particularly those already prone to mental instability.

[Rockingham]

Individual susceptibility varies. Drop 100 people chosen at random into the ocean a mile offshore, some will drown and some will survive. That some survived does not mean that those who perished must have died of something other than drowning.

Over the coming years, as the biological effects of marijuana and the mechanisms of mental disorders are better understood, the case against marijuana will get stronger and stronger. Mercifully, we can also hope that therapies will be developed that help treat mental disorders caused by marijuana use.

[GOPJ]

Is it that marijuana causes psychosis or that people who have a psychotic condition tend to be drawn to marijuana?

egg meet chicken... chicken meet egg... People who take antidepressants statistically are more depressed than those who don't...

[devere]

Good news.

In very high risk people (ages 13 to 25) 4 fish oil capsules a day for 12 weeks lowered the risk of full-blown psychosis by ~80% compared to the placebo group.

Benefits were sustained after patients stopped taking the fish oil.

Amminger GP, Schafer MR, Papageorgiou K, et al.
Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids for indicated prevention of psychotic disorders
Archives of General Psychiatry, 2010;67: 146-154

http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/2/146

[Larry Lucido]

Any studies find any links between years in “federal pound you in the ass prison” for a joint, and becoming a hardened criminal? I suspect there might be one.

The War on Some Drugs. The cure that is worse than the disease.

[windcliff]

ping

[onedoug]

“They’re coming to take me away, ha-ha,
They’re coming to take me away, he-he, ha-ha,
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful
All year round. And I’ll be happy
To see those nice young men in their clean white coats,
For they’re coming to take me away, ha-ha!!!...”

[Crim]

yeah yeah...pot causes psycosis just like the superbowl causes wife beating, or owning a car causes drunk driving....

It doesnt.

But there is a backwards correlation....and that wont stop people with agenda’s from trying to posit it as causality...

[Crim]

So clearly...it’s not eating fish that causes psychosis...

Hey I can leap to conclusions as good as anyone else...

*grin*

[devere]

“But there is a backwards correlation....and that wont stop people with agenda’s from trying to posit it as causality”

I think it is truly unclear whether marijuana contributes to psychosis; and that’s what I’ve told my own children when they asked. But even if it was proven that marijuana contributes to psychosis, I would be opposed to the stupid and destructive criminal laws against marijuana.

[Rockingham]

Do you also believe that cigarette smoking does not cause cancer? And that alcohol is good for the liver, the more the better?

I have researched marijuana in the medical literature several times over the years. In the mid 1970s, I was stunned to find that solid medical evidence against marijuana was lacking.

Now, after decades of research, the evidence of a link between marijuana use, adverse personality changes, lack of motivation, and mental disorders is extensive and credible.

[ridesthemiles]

I could have told them that for free...so could anybody else who’s ever been around long term stoners.”

A Haight-Ashbury native—Danny Glover comes to mind immediately.

[Crim]

Oh boy...here comes the strawman parade...

“Do you also believe that cigarette smoking does not cause cancer?”

Does everyone who smokes get cancer?

Do people who DONT smoke get cancer?

“And that alcohol is good for the liver, the more the better?”

A drink a day is better no no drinks...go figure...

“Now, after decades of research, the evidence of a link between marijuana use, adverse personality changes, lack of motivation, and mental disorders is extensive and credible.”

Now, after decades of research, the evidence of a link between GLOBAL WARMING and MAN is extensive and credible.

Yet the AGW theory is a HOAX...

The Lancet study was a fraud...the statistics the Govt is tossing around for the uninsured is bullcrap...

Spare me the “appeal to authority” argument....the “authorities” are corrupt and survive on research grants that seek certain outcomes.

One of the studies was based on 180 psychotic potsmoking EUROTWINKS in SWEDEN with no control group (IE: non psychotic potsmoking teens) as a comparison...it's the same type of extrapolating that takes place to allow health “professionals” to claim that 45,000 people die every year due to lack of health insurance....

It's pure BS...as silly as the idea that only liberals smoke pot.

Hemp has been used for well over 2000 years....millions of American smoke pot....so where is all the psychosis?

Or are we to believe that every psychotic is a potsmoker now? “There are some Ideas so preposterous that only an intellectual could believe them”..Orwell

[Rockingham]

Viewed dispassionately, there is strong and growing medical evidence that marijuana is responsible for a range of mental disorders, with schizophrenia and psychosis at the extreme. Adverse personality changes, loss of motivation, and memory defects are more common and are so widely recognized by the public and users as to be the basis of the stoner comedy genre.

Rejecting medical studies as tainted because they come from experts and are often government funded is plain silly. Scientific evidence should be evaluated on the merits. Picking at the assumptions and limits of a specific study is fair enough but does not contradict the great weight of the evidence offered by other studies.

Ordinary experience of the harms of marijuana led to it being widely banned even without solid medical medical evidence. Over the years, I saw contemporaries whose lives were derailed by marijuana use. I also know of long term marijuana users who were productive and functioning. Again, individual susceptibility and effects vary, as they do with alcohol, tobacco, and much else.

As for lung cancer, it is exceptionally rare in people who do not smoke and who are not otherwise exposed to high levels of smoke. The benefits of moderate alcohol use are in dispute.

[Dr Contreras]

This report is politically motivated BS.
There is actually no evidence to support a link between marijuana and schizophrenia.
It’s complete fantasy.
While I do not smoke marijuana and don’t plan to start, it is interesting that this study appears in only the most conservative news agencies and offers no empirical evidence at all.