Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

sciencedirect.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 57 posts

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#21

Post by openasocket »

cairo_x wrote: post #7

Weed helps you ease the cortosol onslaught of any shitty situation. Stress, depression, homelessness, etc... This reminds me of a study where depressed people were shown to have higher rates of gum disease. And just for fun there was a recent study where pot smoking has been linked to gum disease. Why even go there with your research? Why not choose any other arbitrary thing. Like comfort food, binge watching tv seri…

The study showed that depressed men were more likely to use weed, but not women, which doesn't seem so obvious to me.

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#22

Post by douche »

openasocket wrote: post #21
cairo_x wrote: post #7

Weed helps you ease the cortosol onslaught of any shitty situation. Stress, depression, homelessness, etc... This reminds me of a study where depressed people were shown to have higher rates of gum disease. And just for fun there was a recent study where pot smoking has been linked to gum disease. Why even go there with your research? Why not choose any other arbitrary thing. Like comfort food, binge watching tv seri…

The study showed that depressed men were more likely to use weed, but not women, which doesn't seem so obvious to me.

The more interesting question would be why? however

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#24

Post by jsmith0295 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #17
nashke wrote: post #2

I am one of the authors, AMA

How does cannabis use compare to alcohol use with respect to suicidal behavior or depression?

My personal experience has been that there's more of a correlation with alcohol, and that there's somewhat of a negative feedback loop. Considerably less so with marijuana.

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#25

Post by stephengillie »

nashke wrote: post #2

I am one of the authors, AMA

How is self-medication handled in the study analysis? To me, it sounds like men who are hurting start self-medicating early, which supports the social stigma hypothesis. They often use this as their sole resource.

Women wait much longer to self medicate, it sounds like. This may be from women being given other social support options, or because they face a larger stigma around handling their problems themselves. Nevertheless, women who are hurting do begin to self-medicate as a last resort.

It sounds like men have more opportunity to develop a solo coping mechanism, with women not developing this because they aren't isolated early, and instead have other resources to try first.

Disclaimer: I've been a functional daily cannabis smoker for 7 years. I use it to cope with loneliness, depression, and social anxiety. I work for a major cloud and ISP company.

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#26

Post by spdustin »

nashke wrote: post #2

I am one of the authors, AMA

I don't have a question, but an observation, and some unsolicited advice.

You said "AMA" hours ago, and haven't returned (as of my comment timestamp) to answer the questions that have been posted here. On HN, the story may fall off the homepage before you have a chance to come back, which would limit the audience that would see your answers.

I've upvoted it, because I think it's an important study and the conversation that could be had here in the comments may help someone. But I'd urge you (and anyone who says "AMA" on a popular site) to check in every 5-15 minutes for a few hours, just to keep momentum going.

Good luck, and thanks (in advance) for any answers you may offer to the other comments!

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#27

Post by nashke »

calgoo wrote: post #3

So the cause could be that there are a lot of depressed men that smoke cannabis to try to escape their depression instead of taking medication? Maybe it shows a tendency for women to seek professional help where men do not? Especially in cases regarding depression or other "non-physical" illnesses?

We adjusted all analyses for depression and other mental disorders.

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#29

Post by nashke »

stephengillie wrote: post #25
nashke wrote: post #2

I am one of the authors, AMA

How is self-medication handled in the study analysis? To me, it sounds like men who are hurting start self-medicating early, which supports the social stigma hypothesis. They often use this as their sole resource. Women wait much longer to self medicate, it sounds like. This may be from women being given other social support options, or because they face a larger stigma around handling their problems themselves. Neve…

We analysed self-medication variables from the data and found that indeed men tend to self-medicate more. However, our findings regarding cannabis self-medication for suicidality are opposite, i.e. women were much more likelt to initiate cannabis use after reporting suicidality, but not men. Of course, self-medication is but one of the possible explanations for this finding.

Re: The association between cannabis use and suicidality among men and women

#30

Post by nashke »

cpncrunch wrote: post #5
nashke wrote: post #2

I am one of the authors, AMA

Thanks for doing this research, and for posting this...it's a very important field right now, considering that many countries/states are legalising Cannabis. I live in Canada and cannabis is in the process of being legalised. I haven't read the full-text, but how well have you figured out the causation? The study seems to show that in women suicidal ideation causes cannabis use. In men it seems to be the other way ar…

We can't show causation using this kind of methodology. Longitudinal association may suggest causation, but it does not imply it. In the discussion we offer some possible mechanisms for this association, not all of them causal in nature. We do know from previous studies that the endocannabinoid system is altered in suicidal individuals and that sex hormones both affect suicidality and have a reciprocal relationship with the endocannabinoid system. These suggest how and why intense cannabis use can affect suicidal behavior.

I've posted a link which should allow for full-text access for the next few weeks.

Post reply on HN