Buzzby

Cannabis Doubles Risk Of Psychosis For Some Smokers
Nigel Hawkes | Times Online | 12/01/2004

(BuzzNote: Keep this in mind: Correlation is not Causation.)

Cannabis use once or twice a week almost doubles the risk of suffering psychotic symptoms in later life, a study has found.

More frequent use further increased the risk of symptoms such as hallucinations, hearing voices and paranoid thoughts. People with a family history of psychosis or mental illness were at the greatest risk of all.

(BuzzNote: I'm hearing a voice right now. It's telling me to "Raise bullsh*t shields!")

The latest research, published in BMJ.com backs up earlier studies that have linked cannabis to schizophrenia, delusions and other mental illness.

Professor Jim van Os and a team at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands studied 2,437 young people aged 14 to 24, asking them subtle questions to determine whether they were vulnerable to psychosis.

After four years they were questioned again and asked about their use of cannabis.

Professor van Os said: "The results showed in the group without vulnerability there was a small increase in risk of psychosis.

"But this risk was four times bigger in those who had a vulnerability for psychosis. This is a group that is particularly susceptible."

(BuzzNote: What a surprise! People with a predisposition towards psychosis are more likely to become psychotic than those who lack that vulnerability. I would never have guessed! )

He said that among those who were not predisposed to psychosis and did not use cannabis, 15 per cent suffered some psychotic symptoms. But 21 per cent of those who had ever used cannabis suffered such symptoms.

But the difference was most striking in those who were already vulnerable to psychotic symptoms. In this group, 26 per cent of those who did not use cannabis suffered symptoms, but for those who used cannabis it increased to 51 per cent.

(BuzzNote: See highlighted section below.)

"There is a public health message here because it is going to be difficult to tell the whole population to stop using cannabis," he said.

"But it may be better to say that if you have a family history of mental instability you are particularly at risk of the negative effects of cannabis use."

One possible explanation of the findings might be that people who are prone to psychosis are more likely to experiment with cannabis, perhaps in order to combat the symptoms. But the team eliminated this by finding that a predisposition to psychosis did not significantly predict cannabis use during the four years.

(BuzzNote: Could it be that some people who are predisposed to mental illness use pot as self-medication and some don't? Perhaps the ones with the greatest predisposition, who are most in need of some sort of treatment?)

Cannabis was downgraded from a class B to class C drug in the UK in January, meaning that in most cases those found carrying the drug will not be arrested.

Last week figures showed that two in five 15-year-olds in the UK have tried cannabis - more than anywhere else in Europe.

(BuzzNote: The study doesn't seem to be available on the internet as of yet, but nothing I've read in this description of it inclines me to believe that there is a causal relationship between Marijuana use and psychosis. More psychotic people wear aluminum foil hats than the rest of the population. Does this infer that aluminum foil causes psychosis?)

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Herb Ninja

Amen! Ohh look, i'm laughing, it must be my cannabis use earlier this week making me go crrrraazzy. Peace, HN-

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"Truth is treason in an empire of lies." -Ron Paul

solutions

Here's the cited study (pdf).

Isn't it funny how the hysteria always seems to gets the most attention?

A part from today's The Guardian shows the quotes Times Online uses to describe the opinions of the authors of the study is incomplete, AT BEST:

Now wouldn't it be nice when people, say reporters, politicians and such, would include the conclusions of the authors about the desirability of legalisation of cannabis, beside the medical conclusion of the study?

__________________
3 monkeys sitting under a coconut tree
discussing things as they are set to be
Said one to the other, now listen you two
there's a strange rumor that can't be true
they say man was descended from our noble race
but the very idea is a big disgrace
no monkey ever deserted his wife
or her baby to ruin their lives.
Damian Marley - Educated Fools

Bluee

Reefer MaAdDnEeSsssssss

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Pessimism is being content when things go bad, while enjoying life when proven wrong.

VladTheInhaler

Where did you find this crap. UHOH you hear that its says Bullsh*t

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The Blood Of The Marijuana Is The Blood Of Mine.

Plainsman1963

I understand the general sentiment, but was it meant to be rhetorical?

The source is right on top of the article:
Timesonline

solutions

I put in my source as well, if that was the question, because I was.

see?

On second thought, you get a +k.

It's true you know, peace

iGame3D

I checked out several of these articles, and came to the conclusion that you are 15% to 25% likely to develop psychosis between the ages of 14 to 28 wether or not you smoke pot.

This I gather from the findings that 16% of the 2,450 people studied, with no predisposition to psychosis, and no pot smoking..developed psychotic symptoms. 21% the non-predisposed group (the pot smokers) developed symptoms.

Also these articles focus on England, but the study was conducted in Germany, where the legal drinking age is low (alcohol increases risk of psychosis far greater than weed). What is the general percentage of Britians who go off their nut without drugs? Britian is the number one prescriber of anti-depressants to children, so their population is already becoming anti-psychotic drug dependant.

These articles are pure propaganda, the body text hardly supports the headlines.

Buzzby

I would conclude that "mental health professionals" don't have a very precise method of predicting who is susceptible to psychosis and who is not. It would also appear that cannabis use is a better predictor of the later development of psychosis than their current methods. When people develop psychoses it doesn't drop down from the sky one morning. They feel that there's "something wrong" long before and do what they can to relieve their discomfort.