New Research debunks marijuana psychosis myth

[Payaso]

Recent research has concluded that the myth regarding psychosis and cannabis use is certainly unfounded in scientific fact.

The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer madness,’ it generally goes unreported.

Such is the case with a pair of just-published studies slated to appear in the journal Schizophrenia Research. The first study, conducted by a team of researchers at various New York state hospitals, the Yale University School of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Mental Health assessed whether there exists a causal association between cannabis use and the age of onset of psychosis in patients hospitalized for the first time for an episode of schizophrenia.

Despite previous media claims to the contrary, researchers concluded:

“Although the onset of cannabis use disorder preceded the onset of illness in most patients, our findings suggest that age at onset of psychosis was not associated with cannabis use disorders. Previous studies implicating cannabis use disorders in schizophrenia may need to more comprehensively assess the relationship between cannabis use disorders and schizophrenia, and take into account the additional variables that we found associated with cannabis use disorders.”

From NORML, click here to read the whole story.

 

[Stoner Chick]

I have schizoaffective-bipolar. That means i have all the symptoms of bipolar and 90% of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Without marijuana i would be doomed and stuck on highly addictive anti-anxiety pills like Ativan. But instead i stay high and that keeps me mellow. It does not stop symptoms like hallucinations or anything like that, but it does keep me mellow and keep me happy in an ocean of sadness where one could easily get lost kicking themselves over mental illness issues.

My marijuana is not a substitute for anti-depressants or prescription medicine, but it is working an alternative if you don't like dealing with the plethora of bad side-effects that can happen and it helps to bring your symptoms down to a controllable level.

I don't think marijuana caused my mental illness, but it definitely helps me stay sane with it.

 

[Leon Brooks]

lets see if this ever makes it to the local news station.

 

[Stoner Chick]

It won't.

They would rather run an article about some unmedicated bipolar person pulling a gun down at the capital or something worse.

Mental illness is still a thing of ridicule. You lock the people away, not help them.

 

[Ruosk]

Yeah, I don't believe cannabis causes schizophrenia / earlier onset of it... but still, it bugs me that these studies are done with such small groups, like first one mentioned in the article - 49/51 subjects. That's too little to really make any conclusions. Another study mentioned included some 600 subjects, that's at least a little better.

 

[Backward_Z]

Hey--Atavan. I used to be on that stuff too, for anxiety and disassociative disorder.

All the psych meds I was given made things worse, I swear. I still want somebody to explain to me how the hell Zyprexa was helping me by making me sleep 18 hours out of the day and making me so dumb that I couldn't do simple mental math.

But marijuana CAN'T be a good drug for psych disorders--the psychiatry profession doesn't have a monopoly on its distribution!