Wait, am I seeing things? A new study proves that persons who partake in smoking the natural herb cannabis developed psychotic disorders an average 2.7 years earlier than people who did not use the illegal substance.
Meanwhile, alcohol is not associated with early onset of mental disorders, but studies could not rule out the influence of cigarette smoking in association with psychosis. Cigarette smoking however proves not to worsen hallucinations or paranoia in patients with schizophrenia.
As it turns out, men are both more likely to take drugs and to develop psychosis at an earlier age than women, and young people, including those who have schizophrenia, are more likely to smoke pot than older folks, so previous studies that put upper age limits on their participants could have overstated the marijuana-psychosis link.
Cannabis is a mild sedative (often causing a chilled out feeling or actual sleepiness) and it’s also a mild hallucinogen (meaning you may experience a state where you see objects and reality in a distorted way and may even hallucinate). The main active compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
In the study published in Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers concluded that their results “provide evidence for a relationship between cannabis use and earlier onset of psychotic illness and they support the hypothesis that cannabis use plays a causal role in the development of psychosis in some patients.”
Another recent study reported that among 190 patients with schizophrenia, 121 of whom had used marijuana, cannabis appeared to affect the age of psychosis onset in a subgroup of 44 patients. The affected patients either had their first symptoms within a month of smoking pot for the first time, or experienced a severe worsening of psychotic symptoms each time they smoked.
People experiencing psychosis may report hallucinations or delusional beliefs, and may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out the daily life activities.
A wide variety of central nervous system diseases, from both external poisons and internal physiologic illness, can produce symptoms of psychosis.
Researchers also cite studies linking a particular gene to sensitivity to cannabis, which could help explain why most marijuana smokers don’t have a higher risk of schizophrenia, and why even many people with schizophrenia do not have earlier onset connected with cannabis use.
Still, none of the data linking marijuana use and psychosis can prove causality or sufficiently explain why rates of schizophrenia have remained stable or even declined since the 1950s, while marijuana use has increased exponentially. Unlike rates of cigarette smoking and lung cancer, which rise in tandem, marijuana smoking rates in the population do not correlate with higher rates of schizophrenia.
Since 1990 a reported 20.5 million people have used marijuana in an average year. From 1990 to 2005 annual usage was at its greatest reported level in 2002 at 25.9 million and its lowest level in 17.4 million in 1992.
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Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.