Posted on 05/07/2010 5:38:21 AM PDT by HangnJudge
A number of studies in recent years have revealed complex links between marijuana use and psychotic symptoms and diagnosable psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. Although a thorough review of this broad literature is beyond the purview of this brief communication, two avenues of research will be succinctly summarized, pertaining to (1) associations between cannabis use and clinical manifestations of psychosis, and (2) the biologic plausibility of the observed links...
...Conclusion In sum, a growing body of clinical and epidemiologic research suggests significant but complex links between cannabis use and psychosis. Concurrently, ongoing neurobiologic research is revealing findings in the endocannabinoid system that appear to support the biologic plausibility of such links. It should be noted that much of the research conducted to date does not allow for causal determinations. Ongoing research of varying designs will undoubtedly enlighten the field.
(Excerpt) Read more at medscape.com ...
Cannabis and Psychosis Diverse studies suggest that cannabis use is associated with psychotic phenomenology. First, in addition to being the most abused illicit substance in the general US population, cannabis is clearly the most abused illegal drug among individuals with schizophrenia.[1,2] Furthermore, the initiation of cannabis use among those with psychotic disorders often precedes the onset of psychosis by several years.[1,3,4] Second, cannabis use in adolescence is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for psychosis and schizophrenia.[5-7] That is, several epidemiologic studies suggest that cannabis use is a component cause of schizophrenia.[8,9] Very recently, McGrath and colleagues[10] reported that early cannabis use is associated with psychosis-related outcomes (having a nonaffective psychotic disorder, scoring in the highest quartile of the Peters Delusions Inventory,[11] and reporting hallucinations) in a cohort of 3801 individuals assessed at age 18-23 years. Findings among 228 sibling pairs in that study reduce the likelihood that unmeasured confounding variables account for the results.[10] Third, cannabis use may interact with genetic factors to elevate risk for psychotic disorders. One sentinel study demonstrated that the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met functional polymorphism moderates the effects of adolescent-onset cannabis use on the later development of psychosis.[12] Fourth, preliminary research suggests that cannabis use before the manifestation of psychiatric symptoms may be associated with an earlier age at onset of psychotic symptoms,[13] and perhaps even an earlier onset of prodromal symptoms.[14] We found that simply classifying first-episode psychosis patients according to their maximum frequency of use before onset of psychotic symptoms (ie, categorizing into none, ever, weekly, or daily use) revealed no significant effects of cannabis use on risk for onset, but analyzing the change in frequency of use before onset (using time-dependent covariates), revealed that progression to daily cannabis use was associated with age at onset.[14] Fifth, aside from studies linking cannabis use and psychotic disorders, an increasing body of research suggests a potential association between cannabis use and schizotypal symptoms, or psychosis-proneness, in the general population.[15,16]
Several lines of evidence support the potential biologic plausibility of these links between cannabis use and psychosis. First, exogenous (eg, Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and endogenous cannabinoids (eg, anandamide) exert their effects (such as modulating the release of neurotransmitters including dopamine and glutamate) by interactions with specific cannabinoid (CB1) receptors that are distributed in brain regions implicated in schizophrenia. Second, several studies have shown an increased CB1 receptor density in brain regions of interest in schizophrenia, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.[17,18] Third, other studies report elevated levels of endogenous cannabinoids in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with schizophrenia.[19-21] Fourth, acute, controlled administration of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol causes both patients and controls to experience transient increases in cognitive impairments and schizophrenia-like positive and negative symptoms.[22] In summarizing these and many other findings, Fernandez-Espejo and colleagues[23] have suggested that the endocannabinoid system is altered in schizophrenia and that dysregulation of this system, perhaps induced by exogenous cannabis, can interact with neurotransmitter systems in a way so that a "cannabinoid hypothesis" can be integrated with other neurobiologic hypotheses (eg, those involving dopamine and glutamate).
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Other linked article
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/717957
Early Marijuana Use Heightens Psychosis Risk in Young Adults
...I could have told them that for free...so could anybody else who’s ever been around long term stoners.
personal experience with this, it is a terrible way to lose a child, like falling off a cliff in slow motion
It’s also linked to climate change and going to hell in a hand-basket. Oh please. Make it stop, make it stop. snicker.
Jesse “the moron” Ventura?
So let’s legalize it!
Then it can be mass marketed to retail stores and advertised on MTV!
But...but...but...
Marijuana is less harmful than cigarettes!!! That’s what we’ve always been told. It causes less harm than alcohol. I saw it in the Main Stream Media, so you know it must be so.
Golly, Daddy was right all along.
I understand
The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc argument that just because Marijuana use is statistically linked to psychosis
Does not necessarily mean that the psychosis is caused by it...
Has been a tough statistical knot to untie
Is it that marijuana causes psychosis or that people who have a psychotic condition tend to be drawn to marijuana?
Yep.
California should be ashamed giving “medical” pot to minors
Or
3. Some of each.
4. Some unknown other factor causes both.
“Evidence Accumulates for Links Between Marijuana and Psychosis”
“Evidence accumulates” eh.
I’m in head shakin’ awe.
I saw this with a number of kids growing up and it usually hit in their 20s. Those kids already had problems as kids and were lured to drugs (to feel good and fit in) and it seemed to push them over the edge, leaving full blown schizophrenia. (which is very expensive) But it's impossible to prove, except to show statistical correlations.
Like...totally dude...I think smoking pot for the last 30 years has made me more conservative in my outlook...
Just another BS study...
Look...crazy people all drink water....therefore drinking water makes you crazy...
Bleh....
Correlation does not equal causality...
See comment #10
This is the difficulty with the Statistics
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc arguments vs
Genetic predisposition to psychosis
Leads to early high risk behavior
This posted article was submitted to further the discussion
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....
“Ten seconds, Dave.”
I think that the article itslf states it's motive where it states: cannabis use is associated with psychotic phenomenology. First, in addition to being the most abused illicit substance in the general US population, cannabis is clearly the most abused illegal drug among individuals with ...
This entire rant is entirely out of place and inappropriate in ANY scientific study, since it is entirely judgmental and normative, rather than focused on the specific causes, symptoms, diagnosis and prognosis of a syndrome. It is obviously written by some hard core government grant junkies trying to stay on the high of war on drug money.
This is but one more example of how our economy got into a structural mess with enormous parts of the population consuming enormous quantities of resources to do things that are entirely useless to a productive economy.
The gov’t won’t let anyone test MJ, lest they find out it has some valid medical uses, so how can they determine if it has negative consequences like schizophrenia?
In hushed tones, apparently.
But if links between a substance and mental illness are cause for jailtime, then let's lock up the alcohol drinkers and cigarette smokers too.
LOL! Exactly! Just like I keep telling my boss about our corporate office folks, "There's got to be something in the water up there". Although, they're not crazy, just totally incompetant.
"Correlation does not equal causality..."Truly, the standards for scientific research have fallen so far for something like this to be published. I would be embarrassed to publish as pathetic an article as this. It is comparable to the AGW studies . . . I think it, therefore it is.
Nonsense. You threw a piece of red meat to a pack of starving rabid dogs and you know it. LOL!
This is one of a few issues that divide the social conservatives from the more libertarian conservatives. Some of us are of the opinion that it really does not matter. Either way, there are far better ways of dealing with the issue than having the highest jail population per capita on the planet, and having third rate would be special forces thugs running roughshod on the land with a license to root out stoners. It joins with number of other unaffordable incentives for doing nothing useful for a productive economy that has lead to our present economic "malaise."
Alcohol: Psychological Consequences of Chronic Abuse
http://www.bookrags.com/research/alcohol-psychological-consequences—dat-01/
Everything that affects your brain...well...affects your brain. I’m sure, as with anything, moderation minimizes or negates the effect.
In physics garbage like this would be unpublishable.
The only good news is it is reversable... coming from a former pothead. I smoked it multiple times every day for about 2 years. It took a few years to really be thinking clearly again once I stopped. While the drug is victimless and the stoner is harmless, unless s/he gets behind the wheel, those who say one can use the drug with no negative side effects are purly in denial. I support legalizing it only because I have a libertarian side and I think it could be taxed and it wastes prison space, but I will personally never get into the stuff again as all it does is assist in wasting time and productivity.
Yup
I like watching discussions like this
I'm strongly Libertarian
But also a Physician
I despise Enslaving persons by removing choices
I also have a heightened awareness
of the consequences of Suffering
Threads like this speak powerfully
to our internal viewpoints
Cause / Effect
Choice / Do No Harm
Yup
I like watching discussions like this
I'm strongly Libertarian
But also a Physician
I despise Enslaving persons by removing choices
I also have a heightened awareness
of the consequences of Suffering
Threads like this speak powerfully
to our internal viewpoints
Cause / Effect
Choice / Do No Harm
Studies of this sort remind me of a comic I saw once.
Two police officers are walking down a sidewalk, and one says to the other, “I smoked marijuana once. It made me want to hurt and kill.”
You don't see any fear mongering going on here?
Many, many scientific studies show correlations between x and y. Few ever show causation. Many scientists make the mistake of interpretation those studies according to the flawed belief that correlation = causation.
Drinking sodas makes kids fat.
Smoking marijuana makes people psychotic.
In both cases, the correlations are probably real. But the correct interpretation is that an underlying mechanism is responsible for both, not that one causes the the other.
I would be inclined to believe that fat kids drink lots of soda because of a pattern of behavior that leads to obesity. Because they have developed the behavior, their brains lead them to consume high calorie, low nutrient foods. (And this is a biological urge, once the obesity has developed—treating it takes more than just teaching them proper eating.)
I would be inclined to believe that marijuana smokers develop psychosis because of an underlying brain disorder that leads to psychosis. Because their brains are already somewhat off-balance in the neurotransmitter department, they are prone to using neurotransmitter affecting substances.
It's the self-medication issue. People who need or want to change their condition will find ways to do it. There's also a link between alcoholism and poor health. Correlation is not causation.
Like Yogi Berra would say, it's Reefer Madness all over again.
I used to say that pot doesn’t kill brain cells, it just causes you to forget how to use them for a while. LOL!
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.”
Wow...you have been watching wa-a-ay too many reruns of Reefer Madness.
One out in physics....just name a new particle for what one cannot explain.
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.
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.
egg meet chicken... chicken meet egg... People who take antidepressants statistically are more depressed than those who don't...
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
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.
ping
“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!!!...”
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