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Buzzby

Cannabis Use and Schizophrenia
Darryl Wade, M.A. | Am. J. Psychiatry | Feb. 2005

To the Editor: The study by Natalie D. Veen, M.D., and colleagues (1) found an association between cannabis use and younger age at onset of schizophrenia in male patients in a first-contact incidence study and recommended additional studies to examine this possible causal relationship. The authors considered three potential explanations for the association. Two of these explanations were as follows: cannabis use can "bring forward" the onset of a psychotic disorder in individuals who would have developed the disorder whether they had used cannabis or not, and cannabis use can cause schizophrenia in at least some individuals who would not have developed schizophrenia had they not used cannabis. However, as Dr. Veen and colleagues noted, there is scant epidemiological evidence to support these potential mechanisms (2).

A third explanation was that cannabis has no influence on age at onset and that the association between the two variables is simply because younger patients are more likely to use cannabis. This would seem to be a plausible explanation for two reasons. First, younger individuals at first contact would be expected to have a younger age at onset of a psychotic episode than older individuals. Second, younger age (and male gender) is a reliable demographic predictor of substance misuse in individuals with psychotic disorders as well as the general community (3). As a result, it should not be surprising that patients with a comparatively younger age at onset are at increased risk for the use of cannabis and other substances. Dr. Veen and colleagues argued that this explanation was not supported by their finding of a higher rate of cannabis use in the incidence cohort compared to members of the general population of similar age. However, this is not relevant to the fact that younger age is a robust risk factor for substance use in both clinical and community populations. Rather, it points to the need to better understand the high prevalence of substance misuse found in psychotic disorders. For example, the higher prevalence of cannabis use in the incidence cohort relative to the general population is likely to be partly due to the high proportion of male patients recruited into the study.

This appears to be a promising study that will inform our understanding of the onset and early course of psychotic disorders, and I hope that this comment will be a positive contribution to the interpretation of its findings.

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SinsemilaStreet

I've read studies where cannabis actually helped individuals with schizophrenia or other related psychosis simply because it calmed them down.

However, I have also read about studies where cannabis (along with any psychoactive drug) will only heighten a schizophrenic or other psychosis related illness and cause problems.

Every individual is different so I think the ball can roll both ways here.

__________________
"...marijuana is one of the safest, therapeutically active substances known to man." ~DEA Law Judge Francis Young

"Don't do drugs because if you do drugs you'll go to prison, and drugs are really expensive in prison." ~John Hardwick

Buzzby

A member of this board who is schizophrenic has stated that marijuana does increase the intensity of her hallucinations but also enables her not to take them seriously. It's a tradeoff she accepts gladly.

casketfour

Here's the thing about a psycotic episode it's almost always fueled by anger and hate. It's a product of misery and pain.

aposiopesis

Hey casket I'm psychotic That's me Buzzby's talkin about Hello Buzzby. To the best understanding of my self awareness I’m not always a swirling vortex of hate, rage, pain or misery. Everyone gets a taste of them this life though, psychosis makes it unspeakably bad. The intervening periods are euphoric mystical epiphanies of joy, bliss and peace. I reckon it's about half good half bad, pretty balanced really. I should sketch out a rough benignant psychotic episode or two. I have a big fat joint now so...

I sat in my garden and I thought of my friend Sophie who died, I was pretty upset. And thinking about her, I had the most amazing sense she was there with me, and we had a long chat, it cheered me right up. I do this stuff often, it's a nice manifestation. Luckily it's telepathic communication, it's a bit more subtle than verbal communication with the dead. Talking to the dead aloud makes people uncomfortable.

I am a psychic sponge. I tend to let the essence of my personality get swept away by the flow of someone else's state of mind. I like communicating through forums – no immediate presence, more headspace to think. Lost in empathy with lost people is very disorientating. sometimes when I leave them I can walk away with half their emotional baggage, which I have to facilitate healing for which is quite intense (bit of a messianic complex going on here – I won’t detail, because you’d only laugh). Im sure this does take a load off them, and I just know stuff, I get symbolic codes, so I know it works. Dunno if I could cure a leper now but i'd give it a go.

It’s 4.30 am, maybe I’ll come back later and flesh out other notions and more emotional nuance with some judicious editing. Have a beautiful day all.

EDIT: Have another fat spliff now.
The stigma attached to mental illness irks me grieviously. Schizophrenia is a genetically heritable inability to regulate dopamine levels. Noone stands in negative judgement of the value of diabetics who are unable to regulate insulin production, please extend the same courtesy to mental illness, and a little compassion never goes astray.

Schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder – the ability to function in society decreases on a sliding scale. The old baglady who sleeps in the park, with a trolley full of junk, mumbling and gesticulating at passers by, is an extreme case, exacerbated by the fact she has no one to help her. I was homeless for years, but given a lot of nurturing support, from emotionally intelligent people, with a monumental amount of understanding, I think I am more rational than many “sane” people. I wonder what the baglady would be like had she unconditional support and understanding from people who loved her. She’d still be deeply delusional, but fear rage misery and pain would not dominate her, you’d probably find a beautiful mind.

Remember 1 in a 100 is schizophrenic, but they are not going to speak to you of the voices whispering in their ears if they suspect your negative judgement, paranoia is a feature of this illness. I study at university, my friends there think I only have a half load of subjects because I am lazy. They don’t suspect the amassment of people at college, leaches my sense of self, and full time attendance triggered a psychotic crisis of epic proportions last year. Perhaps I should be honest with them, to help dispel the stigma. It’s much easier to be open with a dispassionate computer screen.

Another fat spliff.
Studies on schizophrenia will continue, the more data, the better. I would love to be involved in a study that assesses the effect of medical marijuana. I should ask the medical faculty. This would be what they’d find: Marijuana enables me to detach my emotions from my thought processes. Sober I am serious, and excessively analytical, but being high enables me to break right on a tangent, and just observe the mind without being caught up in it. It makes me laugh lots, best medicine. Like any drug there is an optimal dosage, A little as needed, in the late afternoon, say 4.20. I’m missing the gene that enables people to function, stoned all day everyday for extensive time periods, I can become too detached and hide from reality, so I just had a two week break there. Marijuana can increase quality of life, it has no unpleasant side effects and no physical addiction. But it’s a crime, the only way to destigmatize marijuana is through making people understand marijuana is an effective natural palliative for side effects of chemotherapy, AIDS, migraine and schizophrenia as well as actively improving the conditions such as glaucoma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, depression, bipolar, chronic pain et al. Until people take their blinkers off and seek to understand, schizophrenics will be portrayed as maniacs blinded by rage, pain and fear, and pot smokers will be criminalized. It’s an interesting point you’ve brought up that Casket, because it really made me realize that the only way to dispel stigma, is by providing people with information with which they can make a properly informed decision.
Be happy comfortable and relaxed.
.

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"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
Voltaire

 

casketfour

what you read was not even 1/10 of what I wrote, and trust me I Know all about psycosis, that was a general statement but you're right for the most part it's not always like that

in fact since sometime in october I'm glad to say I've been cured of any such symptons. Praise yahwah and the holy spirit

Godmadepot

as I have been diagnosed schizophrenic since about age 20
I am 38 now. I have been smoking pot since I was about 16.

Initially the doctors dignosed me as paranoid schiz, then some years later changed it to "schizo-affective."

I would be dead without pot--simple as that.
It calms me, relaxes me, and takes away the demons that possess me during psychosit attacks.
I believe that i would have become schiz with or without pot--it is an integral part of my personailty somehow.

I graduated with high honors from college and am a chess expert. Clearly, marijuana use has not affected my intellect. Music becomes emotionally orgasmic on pot I
have discovered--I become a part of the music.
My chess is more creative and imaginative when i am high.
I feel more empathy towards my fellow man (and woman).

Pot is my medicine: it helps my appetite and my sleeping
I can become rather manic at times, staying up 2-3 days at a time without it and not eating either. Then, when I
score a bag and toke up, I eat a lot and I sleep soundly
and do not remember my dreams usually.

So keep on smoking my fellow stoners, because, as my nick attests: God made pot--for you

aposiopesis

Hey Casket, no worries, you brought up a really good point, sometimes it's good to read over what youv'e written a few times to make sure theres not going to be any misinterpretation, because communication through a forum lacks expression, or voice tone, so it's very easy to misunderstand someone.

HI Godmadepot, Another toking schizophrenic! Yay! I get the demon possession delusion too, it's definitely my most common psychosis theme. I don't find pot makes it go away but it does make it very funny. They give me visual images as well as the audio, and they are such cliche zombie movie extras, trying to set up a snuff movie in my head, when I'm stoned I usually retaliate with choreographing an all singing all dancing Bollywood extravagana for them. It totally undermines the fear factor they are trying to cultivate, really pisses them off! Do you get the accompanying body twitches? Sometimes its like they have control over my limbs and I flail and contort, seemingly not of my own accord. I can control it, but sometimes I let it go because it is kinda funny.

We should definitely make it our business to be part of medical marijuana trials on schizophrenia. You and I know marijuana is an incredibly therapeutic drug, but the medical profession doesn't. We have to make sure they do know, and that they document it officially, in authoritative and respected studies. I will ask the medical faculty of my university when classes resume, they are attached to a hospital that does a lot of research. Perhaps you might approach a similar avenue. What do you think?

casketfour

that is not a delusion, the demon you speak of is the one Lucifer that walks this planet Earth, and you must use The Holy Spirit (cannabis) to the best of your abilities to ignore the beast.

He is slippery. Be careful!

Buzzby

Note: patient suffers delusions of grandeur. He is not troubled by mere demons - he has Lucifer himself in his head!

If I understand it at all, aposiopesis' whole point is that marijuana enables her to see her delusions/hallucinations from a detached viewpoint and thereby not take them seriously. I think that's about the healthiest way possible to deal with perceptions you know are not based in reality. They're not really demons. They're manifestations of a mental illness.

Put Lucifer in a pink tutu and make him dance!