Cannabis Linked to Depression, Schizophrenia

Yahoo News ^ | 11/21/02 | Patricia Reaney

[Libloather]

Cannabis Linked to Depression, Schizophrenia
47 minutes ago
By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Smoking cannabis increases the odds of suffering from depression and schizophrenia, doctors said on Friday.

The occasional joint may not be harmful, but people who start using cannabis in their teens have a higher risk of later being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and the severity of the illness is linked to the length of exposure to the drug.

"Very young adolescents who use cannabis have an increased risk for developing schizoprehenia as adults and the most at risk are the youngest users," Dr Louise Arseneault, of Kings College in London, told Reuters.

Doctors do not understand how cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia and depression but they suspect it affects the dopamine system in the brain which is associated with pleasure.

It is thought the drug can trigger the onset or relapse of schizophrenia in people predisposed to the illness and may also exacerbate the symptoms.

In a study of 1,037 people born in New Zealand between 1972-73, Arseneault found that those who began using cannabis as teens were four times more likely to suffer from psychiatric problems as adults than adolescents who did not use the drug.

"The earlier you start, the more vulnerable you are," she said.

Her findings, which are reported in The British Medical Journal, are supported by two other studies in the magazine which found similar results.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Victoria, Australia found that teenage girls who frequently used the drug were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety than other adolescents.

Another study of more than 50,000 Swedish enlisted men showed the use of cannabis increased the risk of schizophrenia by 30 percent.

"These results indicate a potentially serious risk to the mental health of people who use cannabis, particularly in the presence of other risk factors for schizophrenia," Stanley Zammit of the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff who worked on the Swedish study, said in the report.

Schizophrenia is the most common form of severe mental illness. The cause of the disorder, which is characterized by unusual behavior, delusions and hallucinations is unknown but scientists say it affects chemicals in the brain.

It usually begins in the late teens and early 20s.

"The link between cannabis and psychosis is well established, and recent studies have found a link between marijuana and depression," Joseph Rey and Christopher Tennant, of the University of Sydney in Australia, said in a commentary in the journal.

[RLK]

I have a cousin who is ill with depression and is unable to work. This man is a PRIME example of drug induced illness.

----------------------

It's very common and has been seen and know for years. Under drug use people slowly drift off into another world and it becomes a permanent condition in which the real world becomes subjectively diminished in importance.

[dark_lord]

Stop picking on the Libs. The margin of the win in the last election was pretty damn slim. We want Libertarians voting Republican whenever possible - and that doesn't happen by pinging on them all the time.

Strategy is get Libertarians to vote Republican by giving them some of the things they want -- while encouraging the far left to vote Green and divide the demonrat vote. Whenever the Libertarians get pissed enough at the Republicans they vote Libertarian or stay home - which is NOT what we want.

Let me say something very pragmatic. If we have to get the Federal government to drop the WOD on pot and turn it over to the states (which I favor for 10th amendment reasons, not because I smoke because I don't smoke anything); in exchange for which the Libertarians support the work on rolling back abortion on demand - is that not a fair trade? Let some potheads legally damage their lungs in exchange for preventing baby murder? Hmmm??? Which is more important to you - laughing at the Libertarians and calling them idiots, or rolling back abortion on demand? While you think it over, go back and count the votes on the wins in the last election. Really, really, narrow. We can fix that.

[Alan Chapman]

...how else, Alan, can you explain a political party that can't get more than 1% of the national vote...

The race for president is one of thousands.

Why is it possible for Libertarians to get 45% of the vote in statewide races but 1% or less in national? Because people are convinced that they have no other option but to slow the headlong rush toward socialism by voting for the lesser of two evils.

However, whether reached quickly or slowly the destination remains the same.

I won't disagree with you that the LP has some weirdos which unfortunately draws negative attention. I and others are working to change that. I think the media likes to focus on them because it's humorous and makes great headlines.

[Alan Chapman]

I meant to say local, not statewide, such as that for state assembly.

[God is good]

Oh, so that's why libertarians try to be liberal and conservative at the same time.

[DouglasKC]

Anyone wants proof, my brother is the perfect example.

And my brother...and my wifes cousin...and the list goes on and on...

[Kevin Curry]

Another study of more than 50,000 Swedish enlisted men showed the use of cannabis increased the risk of schizophrenia by 30 percent.

The correlation between cannabis and stupidity is 100 percent.

It isn't at all suprising that bathing the adolesecent brain in a poisonous psychoactive chemical like THC would increase the risk of mental illness. The late teens is when the last great growth of brain tissue and development takes place. The brain is marvelously complex and intricate. Put it through a chemical cuisinart and you can expect to have problems.

I wouldn't be surprised if scientists eventually find a link between nicotine and schizophrenia too.

[Kevin Curry]

[Q:] How do the brain damaged idiots that want to legalize pot respond to studies like this? [A:] Oh I guess about the same way drinkers respond to studies that alcohol use can cause child/spouse abuse etc etc etc

Let me guess. Denial?

[TransOxus]

Not true from my observations. People who become addicted to food, alcohol, drugs, etc. already have these traits of depression, schizophernia, liberalism, etc. - they find escapism from reality by becoming addicted. In college days elsewhere in dens, I noted there were two types who took drugs and the difference could be seen between the addicted group and the non-addicts. One group took it for only having fun and revelries - they were normal and didn't have unhappy childhoods. The second group who became addicted had unhappy childhoods, problems at home, or other problems (sometimes genetic) which they couldn't come to grips with -they made up most of the addicts. This is why the ridiculous war on drugs will never work other than making illicit drugs a profitable criminal enterprise and also for polticians in getting votes from the head-in-the-sand section of the public. A rising number of addicts can generally be attributed to breakdown in the traditional family structure, socialism and its folly of political correctness and anti-Christian activities, and increasing big government.

[Revolting cat!]

Schizosumping? No way, man! What did you say? Shaddup! I'll shut up when I'm ready, OK?! No, shuddup now! You can't order me around! Yes, I can, I'm you, don't you remember? Oh, man, what a bummer...

[philman_36]

New Life (Found) In Schizophrenia Study

And this Cannabis Linked to Depression, Schizophrenia is an old story...just reported in a new way. Though the title is different it is still the same old BS. It's just wrapped in a different package. Nice try.
I'll see what else I can dig up. I believe the Japanese researchers used Arseneault's 70s study too, but I'd have to look into it again.
Study Links Marijuana Use to Schizophrenia (real title Gene Glitches Link Pot With Schizophrenia
my reply then
Gene Glitches Link Pot With Schizophrenia
Gene glitches link pot with schizophrenia

[Fish out of Water]

Think about this, Hospitals are hazardous to your health, the death rate for hospital patients far exceeds the death rate for the rest of the population; therefore if we eliminated hospitals we would increase life expectancy.

[philman_36]

Here's something...http://www.aic.gov.au/crc/reports/mullen.pdf
Arseneault & Colleagues (2000) in a New Zealand birth cohort study of 961 twenty-one year olds studied associations between mental disorders and both self reports and convictions for violence. In those with no psychiatric disorder 22( 3.8%) had evidence of such behaviours in the previous year. The results indicated higher levels among those with any kind of psychiatric disorder (18% O. R. 5.5 95% CI 3.3-9.0), with rates being highest for disorders in the schizophrenic spectrum (33.3% O. R. 5.4 95% CI 2.6-10.9). Rates were also evaluated in the substance abuse disorders particularly that involving marijuana (34% O. R 6.9 95% CI 4.1-11.4). Rates were highest of all in those who had a schizophrenic spectrum disorder as well as marijuana dependence (O. R. 18.4 95% CI 7.5 – 45.3). This study concluded that engaging in greater violence was associated with schizophrenia as well as with marijuana and alcohol dependence both independently, and in association with schizophrenia. Arseneault and colleagues (2000) note "persons with at least one of these 3 disorders constituted only one fifth of the sample but they accounted for more than half the samples violent convictions and violent acts". (pg 984).
Yet at 3. The Methodological Limitations of Existing Studies
We read...A recent New Zealand study based on the Dunedin birth cohort (born 1972/ 73) is one of the few papers to offer an even basic multivariate analysis (Arseneault et al 2000). In a hierarchical logistic regression they demonstrated greater effects for gender (O. R. 3.0 (95% CI 1.7-5.2) and for the social class of the family of origin during the subjects childhood and adolescents (O. R. 0.6 95% CI 0.5-0.8, where lowest social class was 1 and highest 6) than for any mental health variable. When social class was taken into consideration the only specific groups of mental disorders which remained significantly associated with their measures of violent behaviour were the schizophrenias, alcohol dependence and marijuana dependence.
Appropriately established control groups remain the exception rather than the rule. The assumptions underlying both the design of many studies and the interpretations tend by current standards in criminology to be on the simplistic side ignoring, to a greater or lesser extent, issues of social background, cultural context, immediate precipitants and the constructions placed on the target behaviours both by the actors and those defining the deviance.

You really have to look into these things to find out what isn't said in the little news soundbites like the one you've posted here.

[Mark Felton]

I think it is the culture in which they imerse themselves that promotes the depression as much as the pot (or more).

I'd like to see the control group. Did they have the same taste in music and friends? Did they immerse themselves in suicidal violent music?

A lot of questions have yet to be answered.

[philman_36]

And lo, what do we find from no greater source than The Lancet, but this!
UK: Lancet: Editorial: Dangerous Habits
Large doses of THC produce confusion, amnesia, delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, and agitation.44 Such reactions are rare, occurring after unusually heavy cannabis use; in most cases they remit rapidly after abstinence from cannabis.2
There is an association between cannabis use and schizophrenia. A prospective study of 50 000 Swedish conscripts45 found a dose-response relation between the frequency of cannabis use by age 18 and the risk of a diagnosis of schizophrenia over the subsequent 15 years. A plausible explanation is that cannabis use can exacerbate the symptoms of schizophrenia,2,46 and there is prospective evidence that continued use predicts more psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia.47 A declining incidence of treated cases of schizophrenia over the period when cannabis use has increased suggests, however, that cannabis use is unlikely to have caused cases of schizophrenia that would not otherwise have occurred.48 This observation suggests that chronic use may precipitate schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals, an effect that would not be expected to change incidence.45

You see, there is also this thing referred to as MARIJUANA INDUCED PSYCHOSIS that you need to comprehend first to see just where these mind shrinks are coming from.
Cannabis has been noted to cause psychotic-like symptoms during intoxication leading to “cannabis psychosis”. The Epidemiologic Catchment Area study confirmed an association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms. In this study, daily marijuana use over a year was associated with a 2.4-times greater risk of psychotic experiences. Two types of “cannabis psychosis” are described.
1. Toxic Psychosis: Psychotic symptoms are associated with confusion, which usually occurs after ingestion of large amounts of cannabis in someone with no significant psychiatric history. (Recovery is usually rapid after abstinence.) Eating marijuana provides a slow and gradual shift to possible psychosis. Frequently those who eat marijuana achieve higher levels of THC than smokers increasing the likelihood of having a psychotic experience.
2. Functional Psychosis: Occurs without confusion. Similar to an exacerbation of schizophrenia or schizophreniform psychosis.

In the mean time...Hype it up!

[philman_36]

What is the only field of medicine that never finds cures? Psychiatry
Now given, the next site is from an organization that was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York, but the quotes are poignant.
Flawed Research
Another manifestation of psychiatry’s fraudulent nature is the questionable validity of its research results. Two studies published by the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1979 and 1995 found there were consistently high – between 40% and 45% – statistical error rates in psychiatric research presenting statistical results. The 1995 study examined research papers published in the journal in 1993 and found that 34% of the papers had “poor or potentially misleading presentation of results.” It cites D. G. Altman, author of Practical Statistics for Medical Research: “...What, then, should we think about researchers who use the wrong techniques (either willfully or in ignorance), use the right techniques wrongly, misinterpret their results, report their results selectively, cite the literature selectively, and draw unjustified conclusions? We should be appalled.”79
Dr. Kaiser said in the Psychiatric Times in 1996, “When one reads psychiatric journals now, one senses a dangerous giddiness about the field’s ‘discoveries’ and ’progress,’ which in my view are wildly and irresponsibly overstated.”80

[#3Fan]

Democrats want the strongest interpretation of the first ammendment, and the weakest interpretation of the second. Republicans want the weakest interpretation of the first ammendment, and the strongest interpretation of the second.

Bull. The Dems have been wanting to "hush Rush" for ten years now and by the way Daschle talks they're going to step up that program again. The Dems are against the first aamendment.

[#3Fan]

Stop picking on the Libs. The margin of the win in the last election was pretty damn slim. We want Libertarians voting Republican whenever possible - and that doesn't happen by pinging on them all the time.

Nah. Libertarians and Greens are a fact of life. They're both fringe malcontents and there's no way to make them happy. If 20,000 Libertarians moved to one state, all 20,000 would have a different idea on how to construct their society and they'd disparage each other as much as they disparage Republicans now. We don't have to suck up to their ideas of anarchy to make them happy since the Greens offset their vote. We can stick to our ideas of law and order and when we lose, we can win the next time by pointing out the deficiencies of Democratic rule. It's worked well since we took over talk-radio and especially now that there is a balanced news channel.

[bangor505]

cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia

Yes it certainly does...

NO! It doesn't...

Yes, indeed it does...

I'm telling you that it doesn,t.....

[doberville]

I'm looking for a link between sanctimoniousness and psychosis. The correlations appear very strong.