Link Between Marijuana and Psychosis Goes Both Ways

An anonymous reader writes with news of a study out of the Netherlands (abstract) about the link between psychosis and marijuana use. The researchers wanted to examine what caused the relationship — was marijuana use leading to psychosis, or did those suffering from psychosis have a higher tendency to seek out marijuana? As it turns out, they found evidence for both. From the article: "... using pot at 16 years old was linked to psychotic symptoms three years later, and psychotic symptoms at age 16 were linked to pot use at age 19. This was true even when the researchers accounted for mental illness in the kids' families, alcohol use and tobacco use. Griffith-Lendering said she could not say how much more likely young pot users were to exhibit psychotic symptoms later on. Also, the new study cannot prove one causes the other. Genetics may also explain the link between pot use and psychosis, said Griffith-Lendering."

Comments

Re:So

[ganjadude]

no we learned that by pretending to be anti marijuana, we can get federal money to do a report that offers nothing of value.

Re:Correlation not cause

[Carewolf]

Which is more likely: 1) People with psychological issues seek pharmaceutical drugs to help them stay calm and not screw up their lives even though they are hearing voices and other psychotic issues.
2) Drugs cause the problems - but no one ever noticed before.

2b) Marijuana causes the problem - and everybody has already noticed this before?

The connection has been known as long as Marijuana has been forbidden, it is reason it is forbidden in the first place. If they could manage to prove the correlation worked the other way it would remove the main reason doctors still recommend not to legalize it completely. This has not been proven so far everything points to 1) or both like this one.

Re:It's not like it's a new drug or small sample s

[iceperson]

The strains of weed being sold today are very different than what was used even 50 years ago.

Re:Wonder drug? I think not.

[flyneye]

Citations? I mean besides your mother...

Re:STILL doesn't prove causation!

[germansausage]

1. Smoking (anything) raises your risk of oral and lung cancers, including marijuana.

So vape it or bake it into cookies or whatever. You don't have to smoke it.

2. Marijuana lowers IQ in developing brains, e.g. children and adolescents. If you've seen the kind of permanent damage neurons experience after smoking marijuana, this is hardly surprising.

Citation pls. Also who says kids should have it? This is for grownups only, same as tobacco and alcohol.

3. Marijuana causes psychosis in healthy people and worsens it in those with existing conditions.

Again Citation needed. We have just barely started to study this. RTFA.

4. Marijuana is addictive. It's a hotly debated point but the fact is that many people really struggle to stop using it and relapse.

No it isn't.It isn't addictive, and the point is not hotly debated. It is as habituating as any other pleasant pass-time, but addictive, in the way a doctor would define it, it is not. Damn near everyone I knew at school who smoked weed, (which is damn near everyone i knew) doesn't smoke any more. It was no big hardship, you just stop. Coffee is actually more addictive, it will give you withdrawal symptoms, marijuana will not. Look at it this way, over 50% of Americans have tried weed, under 5% smoke it daily.