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Professors Say Smoking Marijuana Can Cause Psychosis & Schizophrenia
04-30-07|Associated Content

Two professors at London's Institute of Psychiatry have conducted research on how heavy consumption of cannabis may affect brain functions, and have produced brain scans that aim to prove how the drug can cause psychosis and schizophrenia in a small percentage of the population that smoke marijuana regularly.

Scientists, health advocates and doctors have been conducting research into the effects of cannabis for decades. The 1936 cult classic "Reefer Madness" is an propaganda tale of harmful marijuana addiction, in which users become the equivalent of dangerous maniacs bent on violence, sex and mayhem after one puff of a marijuana cigarette. A large variety of early films shown in school also aimed to teach children about the dangerous effects of smoking marijuana. The films are laughable by today's standards, but while the effects of smoking marijuana in these films may have been wildly exaggerated, there is still no shortage of concern over the effects of frequent cannabis consumption.

Professor Philip McGuire and Zerrin Atakan used MRIs to show that patients who had received a dose of the active cannabis compound tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly referred to as THC, exhibited reduced brain function in an area associated with emotional and behavioral control and response

Professor Philip McGuire says that the THC acts as an inhibitor, in effect switching off that particular area of the brain, the inferior frontal cortex brain region, which results in increased paranoia.

The professors, like many others, are growing increasingly concerned about the stronger marijuana available today, also known as skunk. Skunk marijuana is a new variety of cannabis cultivated to produce the highest amount of THC possible, in effect doubling the amount of THC found in marijuana only a short time ago.

Professor Philip McGuire and Zerrin Atakan will discuss their research at the International Cannabis and Mental Health Conference at the Institute of Psychiatry.

Some say that the effects of cannabis are more appropriately linked to the users genetics, whereby smoking large amounts of marijuana may in fact cause psychosis in some, it has been shown to have positive effects in treating patients suffering from psychosis and other ailments.

Regardless of the findings, it seems that cannabis research is far from complete, and further research on skunk marijuana will need to be conducted.

 

9184

havent all of us who have smoked gone through a little paranioa? it seems like something we already know. they dont say it lasts after the smoke wears off.each person learns how to regulate the amount to not smoke too much and get paranoid. heck, if i start to get a little paranoid, i know im fucked up.a little paraniod feeling is not enough to counter the other many benifits that weed has

if someone has phsycological problems, they need to be very careful with any drug

Victor_vicious

This is almost laughable. Thier aim is to prove that cannibus can cause psychosis in a small percentage of the population that smoke it regularly. Why?
Wouldn't it be simpler to just tell your patient, if they become 'psychotic', to stop smoking weed and see if stopping clears it up.
The wording of that first sentence is interesting. If you read it in passing instead of trying to analyze it a little, you would think the entire MJ smoking crowd will be going psyco, as soon as they have smoked it long enough. But that isn't what it really says. They are "aiming" to prove, a small percentage of regular MJ smokers may develop some symptoms of paranoia.
If as the article state there has been research for decades, and if , as the article doesn't state, but should have, if fair reporting were the objective, 'they' haven't found any 'Casual' behavior problems so far, then why is there, 'still no shortage of concern' about the long term effects.
Oh, I see Cannibus effect your brain, showing reduced brain function. How does reduced brain function in an area that affects your behavior, shut it off.
Thats a stretch.
And by todays standards those films are laughable, except they are lies. The lies live on and on and on. A small percentage of the population will develop psychotic behavior, with or without the pot. VV

kcbennie

You can tell when they run out of new arguments to discredit cannibis beause they just dust off the old ones and re-present them with up to date technology and figures thrown in.

Only a person who know abosolutely nothing about cannibis would beleive that it could actually make you crazy.

__________________
"My friend said 'Man, the weather is really trippy' and I said 'The weather's not trippy. It's just the way that you perceive the weather that is in fact trippy.' And then I though to myself 'I should've just said 'Yeah.''"

- Mitch Hedburg

IGemini

What is truly interesting about this article is that fMRI scans are not used in a schizophrenia diagnosis, but in prognosis studies. So I'd like to know which they're comparing this study to.

 

annearchist

Doctors: Pot Triggers Psychotic Symptoms

May 1, 2007 6:23 AM (ET)

By MARIA CHENG

LONDON (AP) - New findings on marijuana's damaging effect on the brain show the drug triggers temporary psychotic symptoms in some people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors say.

British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo.

One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug's damaging influence on the human brain.

"We've long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works," said Dr. Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King's College, London.

In analyzing MRI scans of the study's subjects, McGuire and his colleagues found that THC interfered with activity in the inferior frontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with paranoia.

"THC is switching off that regulator," McGuire said, effectively unleashing the paranoia usually kept under control by the frontal cortex.

In another study being presented at the conference, a two-day gathering of mental health experts discussing the connections between cannabis and mental health, scientists found that marijuana worsens psychotic symptoms of schizophrenics.

Doctors at Yale University in the U.S. tested the impact of THC on 150 healthy volunteers and 13 people with stable schizophrenia. Nearly half of the healthy subjects experienced psychotic symptoms when given the drug.

While the doctors expected to see marijuana improve the conditions of their schizophrenic subjects - since their patients reported that the drug calmed them - they found that the reverse was true.

"I was surprised by the results," said Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University's School of Medicine. "In practice, we found that cannabis is very bad for people with schizophrenia," he said.

While D'Souza had intended to study marijuana's impact on schizophrenics in more patients, the study was stopped prematurely because the impact was so pronounced that it would have been unethical to test it on more people with schizophrenia.

"One of the great puzzles is why people with schizophrenia keep taking the stuff when it makes the paranoia worse," said Dr. Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatry at King's College.

Experts theorized that schizophrenics may mistakenly judge the drug's pleasurable effects to outweigh any negatives.

Understanding how marijuana affects the brain may ultimately lead experts to a better understanding of mental health in general.

"We don't know the basis of paranoia or anxiety," said McGuire.

"It is possible that we could use cannabis in controlled studies to understand psychoses better," he said. McGuire theorized that could one day lead to specific drugs targeting the responsible regions of the brain.

On the Net:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/phpnews/wmview.php?ArtID1793


The following is a small section of a larger article in Schizophrenia Daily News Blog from July 20, 2006. The full article can be read here.

What is the link between cannabis use and mental illness?

Worsening symptoms
There is a general consensus that long-term cannabis use, and sometimes short-term cannabis use, worsens psychotic symptoms (paranoia, hallucinations and delusions) among people with schizophrenia. This is also true for people with bipolar affective disorder (manic depression) experiencing psychotic symptoms.

‘Trigger’ effect
There is strong evidence from a wide range of sources that long term and short-term use of cannabis can “trigger” a psychotic episode of psychosis in people who are at high risk of developing psychosis – for instance, people who have close family members who have schizophrenia.

Causal link
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests cannabis may be a causal factor in the development of psychosis. This does not mean that cannabis is a necessary or sufficient cause of psychosis - it is clear that many people use cannabis and do not develop psychotic symptoms; conversely, many people who have psychotic symptoms have never used cannabis.

However, cannabis may be a causal factor. For example, flamingos only become pink if they eat shrimps; other animals, though, do not become pink when they eat shrimps. Shrimps play a causal role in pinkness, but they alone cannot cause pinkness.

*******************************

Interesting stuff. While the first headline is ridiculously misleading, much of the article really makes me wish I had known about this either before or during my year long manic episode. While I would never blame cannabis for creating my mental illness, I might have stopped trying to self-medicate with it sooner. And reading about how they were forced to cut the study short because the effect was so pronounced? That certainly gave me pause.

I post all this even as a newbie, as I feel like these articles might answer some of the previously posted questions about the various techniques (such as MRIs) used in the studies and what the newest information is on the issue. As you probably noticed, the first article came in on the AP wire this morning and mentions a mental health conference taking place this week.

~a.

TheUnseenTruth

Oh boy....

"THC levels are thought to have doubled in street cannabis in recent years - at the expense of other ingredients which may have a beneficial effect."

And I quote from this very site, under Marijuana myths:

"As shown below, average potency has remained essentially unchanged since the early 1980s:
Mean Percentage THC of Seized Marijuana, 1981-1993
Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
2.28 3.05 3.23 2.39 2.82 2.30 2.93 3.29 3.06 3.36 3.36 3.00 3.32

Even if potency had increased slightly since the 1970s, it would not mean that smoking marijuana had become more dangerous. In fact, since the primary health risk of marijuana comes from smoking, higher potency products can be less dangerous because they allow people to achieve the desired effect by inhaling less."

Hmmmm, well then. There's one down.

"Increasing numbers of people are seeking help for cannabis problems at specialist clinics. In 2005, only heroin users accounted for a greater proportion of patients."

Think about this, how many people are born every minute? In an hour? Of course there are going to be more mentally weak people, that's what happens when the population expands as it does.

Also, suppose this claim has a different point. Why it so bad these people are getting "help"? (Coffee rehab is the next big thing) So more people are seeking "help", good for them.

I bet more people are driving, picking their nose, drinking Jack daniels, and swearing too.

What's the point? On to the next.

"They then carried out brain scans, and a battery of tests, and found that those who took THC showed reduced activity in an area of the brain called the inferior frontal cortex, which keeps inappropriate thoughts and behaviour, such as swearing and paranoia in check."

"Inappropriate". Isn't that a pretty fucked up word? Oops! I swore...must be the marijuana weakening my common decency ( )

Really, I wonder to myself.... When we all first started smoking herb (at least some of us) we were younger, testing new waters. We got nervous, a little peer pressure sometimes, maybe mom was home, maybe you weren't sure how to work a bong...whatever. Smoking the pot was never even the paranoia issue for me, it was being caught WITH the weed. Before I even smoked those first few times I was nervous.

It's illegal, of course people are going to be a little paranoid. Pot amplifies what you're feeling, or in some cases just makes you forget about problems for a couple hours ; So therefore why is it the pots fault you were nervous pre-smoke ? Anti-marijuana bullshit.

Some people are paranoid, I don't argue that. But stop pointing fingers at weed when you know full well paranoia would disappear if we weren't prosecuted for carrying a days worth of comfort.

"Professor Murray also warned that the high potency cannabis now widely available was likely to pose a much bigger risk to health than the significantly weaker formulations of previous years.

"It is similar to comparing the effect of drinking a glass of wine at the weekend with drinking a bottle of vodka every day."

It is? Wow...That has to be the stupidest comparison I've ever heard. Sorry, excuse me while I have an annurism at the mere thought of him saying that.

*Twitch*

I like how they worded that, like a warning:"High potency cannabis now widely available."

""We strongly urge the government to heed the growing evidence and take urgent action to warn young people that some of them are risking lifelong mental illness - that they are playing Russian roulette with their minds.""

Russian Roulette! You hear that guys? Funnnnny stuff.

To warn YOUNG people, that SOME of them, are RISKING LIFELONG mental illness.

Holy shit, thanks captain obvious! Thing is, that's a risk everyone takes in a world like this. Businessmen, soccer moms, teenagers, old farts, even us pot smokers.

The place where you're wrong though, is that most of us are mentally healthy, stable individuals. We won't be raving mad in two years, nor twenty. Trying to scare us with your Reefer madness, like little children on Halloween ; is merely downright stunning.

Do you really think, we're to drop our bowls and stop being creative? After all, anything that marijuana induces must be bad...Right Professor...? What sorry, your talking out of your propaganda-hole again...I can't hear you.

I think I'll go lose control over my swearing and be paranoid now. You have fun with the lab rats, Professor.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodgirl I think I will be stopping by the bunker tonight....I could use a little of what you are all serving.

9184

even if we take the report at face value, that the frontal lobe does open up feelings of caution

that is what makes this drug more apealing than say alcohal, where people get drunk and turn there car into a weapon, or coke, meth, crack etc

of course there are plenty of cases where someone smoked and it didnt stop them from doing some violent behavior, but, if anything, young people who take up smoking are probably not going to be looking for violent trouble like alcohol definitly promotes

like i said, people who have mental problems that are severe, shouldnt be messing with any drug on a casual basis

9184

sorry for the three posts, i thought it wasnt going through

godfather

Yeah... These articles make me lose all faith in humanity. Well, not ALL faith, but they're pushing it...

I hadn't had any sort of paranoia for a long time the last time I used marijuana. I do think it has something to do with not being worried about getting caught as stated above.

Also, people keep saying "Marijuana is 50 ba-gillion times stronger now than it was a few decades ago." Even if that were true, would it matter? What about hashish or honey oil or eaten marijuana? Those forms are all stronger than marijuana in it's raw form, and have also been around for quite some time. It seems to me that if large doses of THC had an adverse affect on a large number of people (note: LARGE), it would have been well documented by now.