"Wait....whut?"
Posted on 12/18/2011 5:35:00 PM PST by Tarantulas
Brain abnormalities that make teenagers more likely to smoke cannabis have been identified for the first time by Australian scientists.
Their study of more than 100 Melbourne teens also confirmed that cannabis harms the brain, adding weight to a raft of previous research on damage caused by long-term use of the drug.
Researchers from Monash and Melbourne universities took high-tech images of the brains of 155 primary school students when they were 12.
Four years later when they reached their milestone 16th birthday, the students were asked whether they had used cannabis.
Of 121 who responded, 28 admitted to using the drug.
When the researchers checked the scans taken when those students were 12, they found a part of the frontal lobe area in their brains was smaller than those in teens who steered clear of cannabis.
Lead researcher Professor Lubman, of Monash University, said the students with abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex - the brain region involved in memory, reward and decision making - were more prone to using cannabis.
"What we found is that only the orbitofrontal cortex predicted later cannabis use, suggesting that this particular part of the frontal lobe increases an adolescent's vulnerability to cannabis use," he said.
"However we also found no differences in brain volume in other parts of the brain that we have shown to be abnormal in long-term heavy cannabis users, confirming for the first time, that cannabis use is neurotoxic to these brain areas in humans."
Previous studies have shown that long-term heavy cannabis use harms the brain.
Adolescent users have been found to have difficulties with paying attention, solving problems and with their memory.
However the study is the first to examine whether existing brain abnormalities have a role in whether teens start using cannabis.
It was published online by the journal Biological Psychiatry.
like...a lot of people...say...that pot m a kes you lose your memory...
Doesn’t make you lose your memory, I think that it makes everything in your brain fire slower. I used to think pot was harmless, but the more I see potheads that I’ve known for years just acting without common sense, and stupidity I can’t help but think that pot really is bad, worse than alcohol.
I’ve never liked pot, and for that I am grateful.
I’ve posted about here at FR about studies done over decades by the Swiss and Swedish governments that demonstrate the brain damage caused by teenage use of marijuana.
The studies done by those two nations involved military personnel who had used marijuana in their early teens, and how it affected them years later. There was a 600% chance of developing schizophrenia later in life by those who had used marijuana at age 13-14.
Counting the seconds until the FReeDopers show up.
NOW WE KNOW! What is wrong with us. And here we were blaming it on our pet tapeworm, Obiwan.
"Wait....whut?"
I was going to say that, but you said it SO much better with pictures and everything.
;-)
I saw a show recently detailing the short term effects of pot on the brain. It inhibits the portion of the brain that transfers short term memory to long term memory. It also inhibits the portion of the brain that tells your stomach you are full.
Difference between effects of alcohol and cannabis:
A drunk driver will blow right through a stop sign.
A stoned driver will sit there and wait for it to turn green.
FWIW, I saw some real potheads in Vietnam. So nice to learn they haven’t changed because marijuana doesn’t change you, you’re just the same as you always were.
Age fifteen or thereabouts.
A couple of things:
1) I have no doubt that marijuana can damage the brain development of kids, but this study is worthless from a scientific perspective. A survey of 121 students, then they accepted at face value which ones admitted to using, as if none of the others would lie? Gosh, no chance of bad data there. Maybe the smaller frontal lobe area of the kids who admitted to using is the thing that made them tell the truth.
2) The study doesn’t differentiate between frequencies of usage. For example, did these kids use once in a few years? A few times in a few years? Or were they using everyday?
3) I also have no doubt that a great many substances will harm kids during their development, to include alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and household chemicals.
As in, paranoid schizophrenia?
Physical proof that Marajuana not only damages the brain, but is also addicting. I can hear the howls of denial already winding up.
When I was a teen nearly everyone at least tried pot, it was so common in my high school people would smoke it in the restrooms between class and teachers would come in and just ignore those that were smoking pot. There were some that didn’t try it or use it again after trying it, some that became occasional users and a few that became dedicated to smoking pot and did it every chance they got.
It has been interesting to see those people in the years since- I have noticed no effect on those that were occasional users, but the dedicated pot smokers obviously had brain damage that was noticable after only a couple of years. Until I saw the change in the people I knew so well I thought pot was harmless. It is not harmless and I believe it is far worse than alcohol. There may be something to the idea that those that are prone to be dedicated pot smokers having different brains or chemistry/whatever to begin with, but I saw people that didn’t seem to have issues until they smoked it a while so have to believe their mental issues now are a result of using pot so much.
Like I wonder if the scientists took into account the study was done in Australia where everyone is upside down all the time. That has to effect brain chemistry man.
“they found a part of the frontal lobe area in their brains was smaller...”
Because the extra space was filled up with nachos, cheetos and pizza grease.
“Physical proof that Marajuana not only damages the brain, but is also addicting. I can hear the howls of denial already winding up.”
I guess alcohol is not addicting?
” “Physical proof that Marajuana not only damages the brain, but is also addicting. I can hear the howls of denial already winding up.”
I guess alcohol is not addicting?”
I’ll drink to that....
Neither which should matter to adults of legal age.
When I was in High School, I remember a conversation (or more accurately an attempted conversation) I had with a stoner while riding the bus to school. That was all it took for me to steer clear of the stuff. I knew I never wanted to look or sound like that kid!
When I was in High School, I remember a conversation (or more accurately an attempted conversation) I had with a stoner while riding the bus to school. That was all it took for me to steer clear of the stuff. I knew I never wanted to look or sound like that kid!
"I just want to sit on my back porch, not bother nobody and give myself a lobotomy" - /Libertarian mode off
"I just want to sit on my back porch, not bother nobody and give myself a lobotomy" - /Libertarian mode off
Got to admit that during my graduate classes in NeuroPsychology and Statistical Method I didn't ever encounter a 600% chance of anything, WTH does that mean?
Occupoopers prove the rule.
What it means, Steve, is that smoking pot when you’re a teenager and your brain is still developing, ain’t good for your brain, period.
The Herald-Sun’s article is so poorly written I can’t make heads or tails of it, except (I think) for the part about the abnormal orbitofrontal cortex predicting later Cannabis use. The word “Changes” in the title is completely inappropriate. The article is not mainly about changes, it is about existing abnormality predicting later cannabis use. The remainder of the description is indecipherable. It seems to describe anatomical effects of use, but is unclear. Unfortunately legions of FReepers seem to think they understand the article.
I think the guy who wrote it was stoned.
Mel
My sister used to be a police officer, and she said she could usually guess at what age someone started smoking dope, because it seemed their mental development was arrested at that point.
I was very young in the 70’s after pot had taken it’s toll on my older brother’s friends. He went to Viet Nam. Memory and ambition were not assets they suffered from. My brother made it a point to give me a tour of the wreckage.
The problem with legalizing drugs, is that dummies like you will promote the use of those drugs to dummies who don’t know any better. Then people like me will have to support them because they are too brain and soul fried to support their own babies.
I despise the war on drugs. Just trying to figure out how we can permit idiots to fry their own bodies and brains without them bothering everyone else with their mental problems on the job and their upkeep.
Placemark to insert my solution tomorrow!
heheh
Fr_freak,
I agree with everything you said and thanks for your service.
You have to kind of read between the lines to understand it. Maybe the author smoked too used too much cannabis when a teen.
Orbitofrontal Volumes in Early Adolescence Predict Initiation of Cannabis Use: A 4-Year Longitudinal and Prospective Study.
Cheetham A, Allen NB, Whittle S, Simmons J, Yücel M, Lubman DI.
Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
There is growing evidence that long-term, heavy cannabis use is associated with alterations in regional brain volumes. Although these changes are frequently attributed to the neurotoxic effects of cannabis, it is possible that some abnormalities might predate use and represent markers of vulnerability. To date, no studies have examined whether structural brain abnormalities are present before the onset of cannabis use. This study aims to determine whether adolescents who have initiated cannabis use early (i.e., before age 17 years) show premorbid structural abnormalities in the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex.
METHODS:
Participants (n = 121) were recruited from primary schools in Melbourne, Australia, as part of a larger study examining adolescent emotional development. Participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging at age 12 years and were assessed for cannabis use 4 years later, at age 16 years. At the follow-up assessment, 28 participants had commenced using cannabis (16 female subjects [57%]), and 93 had not (43 female subjects [46%]).
RESULTS:
Smaller orbitofrontal cortex volumes at age 12 years predicted initiation of cannabis use by age 16 years. The volumes of other regions (amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex) did not predict later cannabis use.
CONCLUSIONS:
These findings suggest that structural abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex might contribute to risk for cannabis exposure. Although the results have important implications for understanding neurobiological predictors of cannabis use, further research is needed to understand their relationship with heavier patterns of use in adulthood as well as later abuse of other substances.
Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22129756
I appreciate your support here, cowtowney. Just to be clear, I’m not trying to suggest that I deserve any special consideration because I was in the military. My point was only that this is supposed to be a conservative community here on FR, but if people are going to waste time and bandwidth throwing out casual insults to people who should be natural allies, then we’ve got nothing here. On the other hand, the other poster might just be a troll.
Placemark.
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It's a natural plant - herb - just like brocolli or Amanita mushrooms!
I had some friends who I knew before pot and after pot and I watched bright, ambitious, good looking girls attending college turn into wastes who dropped out of college and whose only interests were when they were going to get high, drunk, or laid.
It made me paranoid and jumpy as hell. I could not sit still.
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