Studies link cannabis use to psychosis

[Tom]

Evidence is mounting that heavy marijuana use can increase the chances of developing severe mental illness for some adolescents whose genes put them at added risk.

 

The link between cannabis and psychosis gained ground this week when two influential medical journals reviewed the research to date and concluded it was persuasive.

 

In PLoS Medicine, Professor Wayne Hall, a public health policy expert at the University of Queensland, wrote that genetically vulnerable teenagers who smoke marijuana more than once a week "appear at greater risk of psychosis". An article in the British medical journal BMJ cited estimates that marijuana could contribute to about 10 per cent of psychosis cases.

 

The latest research points to adolescence as a particularly risky time for heavy marijuana use by those genetically predisposed to mental illness. Brain scientists theorise that marijuana may induce temporary changes in brain chemistry that, when reinforced over time, become permanent.

 

Among the research cited by both papers was a study published last year that followed more than 800 New Zealanders from birth until 26. It looked at people with a gene variant that apparently predisposes them to developing psychosis, and people without it.

 

The study found that among those with this variant gene, smoking marijuana as teenagers increased their risk of psychosis in young adulthood nearly tenfold compared with those who did not smoke as teenagers. Those who smoked cannabis but did not have the gene variant incurred little or no added risk.

 

The absolute risk of cannabis users developing schizophrenia was low, at about 2 per cent, and the added risk from smoking marijuana was small compared with the risk of contracting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes.

 

Author:The Sydney Morning Herald.

Date:January 28, 2006

Source:The Sydney Morning Herald.

Copyright:© 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

[Nath]

I can agree with these studies, I had pretty bad paranoia when I was younger and only smoked dope. But its the youth ruining themselves smoking hydroponic commercial cannabis which hasnt been flushed which is full of chemicals still, and smoking in copious amounts isnt good for anyones health. When I start smoking again I really only want to smoke to medicate myself and do it at night time to get to sleep... but I will find myself smoking during the day, so hopefully I can just keep it to smoking small amounts of sativas during the day.

[WantDaChronic]

if the psychosis has been linked with a specific gene, then even before the child is born you could tell the mother to keep their child clear of cannabis...there is no reason to punish the other 98% of smokers who are not at risk well 99% if you go by the aussie study

[dsyfer]

Evidence is mounting that PICKING YOUR NOSE THE WRONG WAY can increase the chances of developing severe mental illness for some adolescents whose genes put them at added risk.

 

They don't tell you that they also found that, stress, frustration, anger, pain, etc probally also increased the risk of mental illness for these people.

 

There is a real era of rehashing trashy journalists around at the moment :angry:

how many different ways can we hear the same story?

[Pa-uul]

This is a lie. These people are liars. Pick a number between 1 and 100. This is the percentage of people that cannabis use will give psychosis for this week. Last week it was 1 per cent. They can't even get their figures straight. This professor gets payed dirty money to fabricate scare stories about marijuana. Good value for someone, I guess. God, how many people fall for this sort of propaganda?

[WantDaChronic]

you'd be suprised at the amount of sheep that believe anything they see on tv or read in a news paper

[everest]

you'd be suprised at the amount of sheep that believe anything they see on tv or read in a news paper

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

::

 

i want to see some research on this new "growth gene" that's been discovered ... damn think i was born with it .... just forces me to grow .... i think the trigger was high prices and poor quality ...

 

shit i need help

 

ev :smoke

[boomstix]

i have seen friends of mine fuck out after smoking too much for too long.

 

as far as i can tell they're ok now that they don't smoke all day.

 

as a general tip, if something is making you get crazy, it's probably a good idea to give it a rest.

 

we don't need to go around pretending that there's no consequences to smoking and we certainly don't need to start believing these so called 'studies' until they stand up to peer review and scrutiny from unbiased experts.

 

does anyone have a dollar value for how much the western governmets have spent so far trying to prove that cannibis is harmful?

 

because you don't need to spend any dollars to prove that war is harmful and we're still having those.

[Nath]

TRUE STORY, I just remembered seeing it on tv... about the 'colour' gene.. like everyone starts out black, and then there is a gene in the human body that determines colour which eventually got people from brown to yellow to white, and some stayed the colours they were.. ill do some google searching on it, but I swear it was on TV the other month.