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Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

cnn.com

261–270 of 454 posts

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#261

I think it's too common a sentiment that psychoactive substances like cannabis and psilocybin are harmless and in fact are good for mental health. I've had adverse mental reactions to both and I would caution people with family history of anxiety.

A lot of marijuana smokers like to pretend weed smoke is somehow less harmful than any other smoke. It's still CO whether it comes from the tobacco or hemp plant. It's still bad and creates a tar residue in your lungs. Any time I bring that up, somehow I become anti-pot even though it's a genuine concern. Edit: Carbon Monoxide, not Carbon Dioxide. And some additions since this is a tad controversial. Here is one sour…

Weed actually contains anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic components, that's why people say it is healthier then other plants when inhaled. I'm not making this up, please look for it yourself if you care for the full picture and are genuinely interested as to why people say that.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#262

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends and acquaintances with many people that smoke a lot. I see a trend among these people - not necessarily schizophrenia (I'm not a psychologist and probably wouldn't even notice a mild case) - but instead a consistent arrogance and self-importance. It's peculiar…

> there's a sense of superiority that seems to crop up among them all

As a Canadian where weed is legal, I can say I've not had this experience at all. A lot of folks here use it, at all ages and all personality types. Very unusual for me to meet someone who uses it and for them to strike me as any different than the average Canadian.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes indeed. I used to think cannabis was relaxing. Then I started wearing a watch which doubles as a heart-rate monitor.

Since we are in anecdotal territory, let me state that I’ve been a heavy smoker since I was 13, and I’m 46 now. I find it difficult to concentrate on coding without weed. I have a very low resting heart rate and enjoy hill climbs on my bicycle and am quite fit, motivated, and not lazy, etc. I generally suffer exclusively the singular negative effect of others finger wagging and disapproval of a rather pleasurable fun…

based on my own anecdata i suspect that you're an indica user and that all the schizophrenia links are from sativas

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#264

I don't know about schizophrenia and marijuana use, but a ER Dr. friend of mine always complains about the amount of people she sees that have a condition where their body can't handle the weed they regularly smoke. The symptoms are always the same, extremely belligerent, violently sick(constant vomiting), and very nauseous. She says that sometimes its the same people as they just don't get that weed is making them r…

This was discussed a lot in the cannabis community a few years ago though the topic seems to have died down. The consensus among people heavily involved in cannabis is that it is related to overuse of neem oil, an organic pesticide. Some growers had been using neem very liberally without keeping in mind that the active ingredients are toxic to humans. The toxicity of neem seems to be in line with the effects of cyclical vomiting/hypermesis. So, it has been a thing to shun and shame people using that pesticide for a few years.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#265
I smoked weed the first time when I was 15 or so. A buddy of mine bought some from a friend of a friend. And we continued to smoke mostly on weekends for years. I stopped right around college in 2007 or so.

Then a year or so ago I smoked some legal weed from a dispensary. And that shit almost killed me.

I was nauseated and sweating and I vomited repeatedly for like two hours. And I couldn’t control my thoughts. They got dark very quickly. Like voices in my head telling me to kill myself…it was fucking insane…

So naturally a few months later I tried it again, assuming it was just something with that strain or whatever. And it happened again. And I’m not even talking like I smoked a whole joint. I smoked maybe four puffs from a bong.

I know that’s not evidence of any kind. It’s just my reaction. And my wife smokes daily to help with the symptoms of medication she takes. She smokes fairly heavily and the worst thing that happens to her is she gets hungry.

I don’t know what the difference is between “modern” weed and the grown-in-the-ditch North Carolina weed I smoked in my youth. But it is not the same thing.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#266

I can only speak from personal experience, which is of course limited. I smoked occasionally in my 20s, but not since (I'm middle-aged now). I've been friends and acquaintances with many people that smoke a lot. I see a trend among these people - not necessarily schizophrenia (I'm not a psychologist and probably wouldn't even notice a mild case) - but instead a consistent arrogance and self-importance. It's peculiar…

I noticed the opposite. In my 30s now and most of the people I know who smoke a lot are pretty relaxed and the complete opposite of a narcissist.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#267
post #30

So, more schizophrenic people are self-medicating with marijuana now that it's more readily available?

I had a girlfriend with a brother he was schizophrenic. He had a classic break with Ronald Reagan directly addressing him through the television and all that. Like most patients, he did not like the side effects of anti-psychotics. He tended to drink light beer all day. At some point he started smoking cannabis and said it was the only thing that had made the voices go away for him. However, this effect seem to go away with tolerance, which isn’t surprising. He also ended up hanging out with a different crowd and starting to smoke crack about six months later, which probably is related to how one was forced to access illegal markets that also sell other drugs to obtain cannabis at that time. Not surprisingly, crack was not good for his schizophrenia. Cannabis, however, seems promising. The way he described it is similar to my experience with pain relief from cannabinoids, which is the unpleasant sensation is still there but you don’t pay any attention to it.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#268
post #47

>> In 1995, 2% of schizophrenia diagnoses in the country were associated with cannabis use disorder. In 2000, it increased to around 4%. Since 2010, that figure increased to 8%, the study found. Worded that way, causation isn't the first thing this suggests to me. If percentage of cases associated with marijuana rise, it could also be that a larger percentage of the population is smoking and admitting to smoking mari…

When this kind of thing has come up before ("pot causes mental illness"), IIRC it turns out more that people with schizoid disorders are self-medicating with pot before getting diagnosed, rather than having taken harder drugs, alcohol, etc. The classic reversed-arrow of causation.

Worse, the "classic" studies that claim to show the connection between use and schizoid disorders claim to adjust for this, but use a method that is completely wrong, and would be expected to show the same effect for any disease where diagnosis reliability at the start is less than 100%

I don't remember the exact details anymore, but more or less they claim to address causation by 1) starting with a non-schizophrenic population, 2) segmenting by marijuana use, and 3) evaluating schizophrenic status N years later. The theory is that by limiting 1) to non-schizophrenics, they've factored out the possibility that schizophrenia drives drug use rather than the other way around.

Of course, most schizophrenics are not actually diagnosed until waaaay past the point where they are showing symptoms, and if you've ever known a schizophrenic who was diagnosed in college, for instance, you know that that diagnosis usually comes at the end of a long chain of subtle and not so subtle mental issues, shrink appointments, and life problems that start much earlier but don't present as full blown schizophrenia. So the whole supposed filter in 1) is complete trash, and they're probably including a lot of people who are already symptomatic, just not to a clinically diagnosable degree.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. I hang out at this one bar and this 22 year old I talk to really thinks he "gets it." Incredibly cocky and arrogant a lot of times. He's fun to talk to but when he get's on a major BS kick I gotta tune him out. I'm only 5 years older than him but the contrast in experiences is stark to say the least. It really makes me wonder if I was ever that arrogant too.

[flagged]

You are dumber than a rock.

Re: Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds

#270
post #250
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry to say that you are most likely right. My father is[0] a psychiatrist in big psychiatric hospital in France (1500 beds, only psychiatry, nothing else) and he told me again and again that he was against the legalisation of marijuana because of this. The problem is that once you trigger schizophrenia you need to live with it, all your life... Note that he told me so, even if his work during the last 15 years…

Same experience with a (art) therapist in a mental hospital (less than 1500 beds). Very persistent in asserting that weed causes some people to end up there. I don't think it's a good argument against legalization. We don't ban alcohol, because there are alcoholics. I think it would be smarter to regulate the recreational drug industry and use its taxes to fund relevant education, research and mental health programme…

It's unfortunate research was barred for so long (at least in the US), because we could have had a good idea by now what risk factors there are and their warning signs at onset
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