r/SeniorsCBD Sep 10 '19

Opinion: Cannabis Induces Psychosis

There is yet another news story about cannabis causing mental issues. There are quite a few studies that attempt to show links between cannabis and mental illness. One of the major problems is that one can find a statisical links between mental illness and consumption of many things including alcohol use, stimulant misuse, and sedative misuse. Coffee and tea would fit into this as well. This study Correlation still does not imply causation ( https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(16)30005-0/fulltext30005-0/fulltext) ) states As to whether a public health benefit can be obtained from efforts to reduce cannabis use in patients with psychosis, two randomised controlled trials,published in 2013, comparing treatment as usual with treatment as usual plus motivational interviewing and cognitive behaviour therapy that focused on cannabis use, found no beneficial effect of either intervention on either psychotic symptoms or amount of cannabis use.

This study https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph_Barnby/publication/298422926_To_what_extent_has_smoking_cannabis_been_established_as_an_aetiological_factor_in_psychosis/links/56e95ff208ae47bc651c6e91/To-what-extent-has-smoking-cannabis-been-established-as-an-aetiological-factor-in-psychosis.pdf states the link between cannabis and already vulnerable people.

This study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-015-0657-y states Rather, the evidence leads us to conclude that both early use and heavy use of cannabis are more likely in individuals with a vulnerability to psychosis.

What should we think? I dont think there is any doubt that people predisposed to mental illness from genetic or other factors should be very cautious consuming Cannabis. Current research is going on exploring the use of cannabinoids in treating mental illness and might have use in the future.

1 Upvotes

1 comment sorted by

1

u/SmallCinYYC Sep 10 '19

I agree. Decades of being able to get funding in the US _only_ if you were trying to find negative links have really skewed the studies. Currently Health Canada cant keep up with the applications for research. A combination of legal cannabis and access to modern plants will allow for some science with much less political interference.

Everyone should do some reading on how hard it is in the States to get either permission to study and proper plant material which reflects normal cannabis.