Contrary to claims made by prohibitionists, who claim that cannabis is responsible for mental illness, a new study on teens and young adults with psychiatric disorders found that regular use of marijuana over a period of two years did not cause early onset symptoms. It was actually associated with modest improvements to cognitive functioning and reduced usage of other medications.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Zucker Hillside hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine and University of Michigan, as well as University of California at Davis. It was published in the journal Psychiatry Research on Tuesday.
The study’s authors noted that recreational cannabis use is gaining attention as a risk factor for psychosis. The study authors wrote: “To date, evidence has been inconsistent that cannabis use is associated with negative outcomes for individuals who are at high clinical risk (CHR) of psychosis.”
The team studied 210 CHR patients aged 12-25 years who took part in the Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program. Researchers compared prescription medication and mental health of marijuana users to non-users over a two-year period.
The study concluded that “continuous use of cannabis over a 2-year period was not associated with a higher psychosis rate and did not worsen overall neurocognition, clinical symptoms, or functioning levels.”
Researchers said that “our findings suggest that cannabis users may have slightly higher positive symptoms, but they are not significant.”
They emphasized that “CHR youths who used cannabis continuously had improved neurocognition, social functioning, and reduced medication use over time, compared to non-users.” “Surprisingly clinical symptoms improved with time, despite medication reductions,” they said.
The study doesn’t encourage youth marijuana use, nor does it support cannabis as a treatment for those who are at risk of psychosis. However, the opponents to legalization still claim that cannabis with high THC levels can cause schizophrenia.
The American Medical Association (AMA), in a separate study, published in January and examining data from over 63 million health insurers, found that there was “no statistically meaningful increase” in psychosis diagnoses between states that legalized cannabis and those that continued to criminalize it.
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Photo by Brian Shamblen.
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