Posted on 05/22/2024 4:39:13 PM PDT by grundle
The new research is more evidence linking cannabis to an increased risk of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, particularly in adolescence.
Teenagers who used cannabis within the last year had a dramatically higher rate of developing a psychotic disorder, according to a study published Wednesday.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Toronto, found an 11 times higher risk of developing a psychotic disorder among teenagers who used cannabis compared with those who did not. When the analysis was limited to just emergency room visits and hospitalizations, there was a 27-fold increase in psychotic disorders in teenagers who had used the drug.
“When I see youths with psychotic symptoms, they’re almost always using lots of cannabis,” said Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn, a child psychiatrist and chair of the psychiatry department at Indiana University who was not involved with the study. “It would be unusual to see someone present with psychotic symptoms to a hospital and not have smoked cannabis.”
The paper adds to the growing body of research that links cannabis to an increased risk of psychotic disorders, particularly in adolescence. Use of marijuana, particularly higher-potency products, has been linked to a variety of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety and depression.
“I think that there’s enough evidence out there for us to give recommendations that teens probably shouldn’t be using cannabis,” said the study’s lead author, Andre McDonald, a postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “If we can somehow ask teens to delay their use until their brain has developed a little further, I think that would be good for public health.”
While most teenagers who use cannabis will not develop psychotic disorders, McDonald said, the findings are concerning given how debilitating these conditions can be.
The new study, like previous research on marijuana and psychosis, does not directly prove that marijuana is causing psychotic disorders. While it’s possible that teens who were prone to develop psychotic disorders could have also been more likely to use cannabis, it’s unlikely because of how striking the association was, Hulvershorn said.
“The magnitude of the effect here is just hard to believe that it’s not related to cannabis,” Hulvershorn said.
There was no association between cannabis use and psychotic disorders in people ages 20 to 33.
“There’s something about that stage of brain development that we haven’t yet fully characterized — where there’s a window of time where cannabis use may increase the risk of psychosis,” said Dr. Kevin Gray, a professor of psychiatry and director of addiction sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina who was not involved with the study. “This study really puts a fine point on delaying cannabis use until your 20s may mitigate one of the most potentially serious risks.”
The Biden administration has been moving toward rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to the less dangerous Schedule III, which would also acknowledge its medical benefits at the federal level. While the potential change is expected later this year, cannabis is currently legal in 24 states for recreational use.
Marijuana use among high school students has remained steady in recent years. Nearly 1 in 3 12th graders reported using it in the previous year, according to the 2023 Monitoring the Future Survey, an annual survey that measures drug and alcohol use among adolescent students nationwide.
The new research, published in the respected journal Psychological Medicine, includes data from over 11,000 teens and young adults who were ages 12 to 24 at the beginning of the study.
The authors pulled from the annual Canadian Community Health Survey, focusing on 2009 to 2012. Participants were then followed for up to nine years after the initial survey to track any visits they may have had to doctors or emergency rooms or any times they were admitted to hospitals..
Of the teens who were hospitalized or visited emergency rooms for psychotic disorders, roughly 5 in 6 had reported previous cannabis use.
“We see this replicated over and over again that there’s this developmental window of adolescence that’s very high-risk,” Gray said.
It’s not completely clear why, he added, but one theory is that disruptions to the endocannabinoid system in adolescence may make psychotic symptoms more likely. The endocannabinoid system is a complex signaling system in the brain that marijuana targets. That could make it harder to distinguish reality from what is going on inside the head, leading to symptoms such as hallucinations.
The authors did not specifically look at how the potency of marijuana products affected the risk of mental disorders, although previous research has found an increased risk.
“ The four pot smoking kids I knew in high school, were not exactly firing on all cylinders before they started either.
Hardly scientific but made me to suspect that troubled kids turn to drugs sooner than others.”
I knew several that were on track to good, happy, and productive lives until they burned out on dope. So it works that way too.
Exactly. They have it backward - teens with psycho disorders are more likely to smoke rope. Self-medicating. Knew quite a few in the '60s and '70s.
They smoked rope? You had some strange friends.
Rope = hemp = maryjane. We were a creative lot back then.
It’s simple. Teenage brains are still developing. The brain is not fully developed until the mid 20’s.
Teens who smoke pot are at risk.
Far out, man.
I believe it—the pot we had back in the early to mid 70s was degrees less potent than todays stuff—or so I am told. I stopped smoking the evil weed when it stopped being $10/lid (That’s $10/Ounce for those in Rio Linda)
or...............
teen agers with disorders are more likely to use mj
People who purchase cannabis from dispensaries are safe from fentanyl laced products. They know up front the potency since products are clearly marked. Less likely to be mugged purchasing from a store, than from a stranger in the park.
You don’t have to “take pot” to realize that, from a safety standpoint, this is better than the black market.
What percent of the psychotic episodes involve edible marijuana, and not smoked marijuana?
Marijuana overdose is possible with edible weed.
When smoking, your blood THC level can reach saturation with just one or two bong hits.
Edible is widely available in most legal marijuana states.
Smoking ANYTHING inside a USA apartment building can get you instantly evicted.
I will speculate that many, and perhaps most psychotic episodes, involve edible marijuana.
Obviously.
We only have so many brain cells. Funny how we work so hard to kill them.
The teens around here are far more into vaping nicotine now instead of obtaining it from tobacco combustion. On the one hand I guess there’s the argument these vapor include fewer toxic byproducts of combustion. Also from the teen point of view, here’s also school-friendly and parent-friendly lack of burnt tobacco odor. These vapes may also be cheaper than a pack of smokes in a high-tax state like California.
I don’t know. The whole thing of seeing people sucking on these plastic devices seems weird to me, as someone who grew up in another era. I also suspect that it’s much easier for teens to deliver to themselves really high levels of nicotine with these devices. The amount of nicotine in tobacco leaves is relatively consistent, I would think. But with these devices, I’d assume that the sky is the limit on dosage.
I’m glad that studies like this are being done, but I didn’t need the study to appreciate its truth. This stupid drug is insanely popular where I live (San Francisco), I’ve seen psychosis happen to users I know. Hell, nearly all the crazies who litter our streets smoke this crap all day long.
Hey, trust the science! Some yahoos publish some paid-for study that they arranged and some people STILL just eat it up like gospel. It’s like the COVID scam never happened.
I am one. I suffer debilitating neuropathy and migraines. A small dose of mixed THC and CBD works amazing. (About 3 mgs via gummy form ). Otherwise all I can get are addictive narcotics and gabapentin that wipe me out.
I am biased as I use to make extraction equipment for CbD and have seen amazing results for epileptics. CBD doesn’t get one high but it was a very successful treatment for epilepsy and other spastic disorders. The THC that gets you high works well for pain, and in my case, neuropathy pain and migraines.
I should add I am not a teen (I wish) smoking the stuff like crazy and know it is harmful to a developing mind. I’m sixty something old man that would rather take a few gummies a week and function than drugs that pretty much make me unable to function.
Two hundred times the strength of 70s pot.
Smell must be worse, too. Just driving through town you can almost get knocked out by the skunkweed odor in certain areas and at the stoplights.
Maybe y’all are asking the wrong questions.
How and when did it become illegal? Was it true science or propaganda?
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