4 ms·

> studies have drawn a link between heavy use of high-potency marijuana, in particular, and the development of psychological disorders, including schizophrenia,

by rcpt 2y ago

> studies have drawn a link between heavy use of high-potency marijuana, in particular, and the development of psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, although a causal connection hasn’t been proved. The schizophrenia link has been a scare story for at least two decades now but why can't any research establish or discredit it?

HPsquared 2y ago
Indeed it could be a self-medication thing like how ADHD symptoms are (temporarily) relieved somewhat by nicotine.
FollowingTheDao 2y ago
It is not a scare story, it is well researched. Effects men more than women. This is from last year: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/ociation-between-cannabis-use-disorder-and-schizophrenia-stronger-in-young-males-than-in-females/E1F8F0E09C6541CB8529A326C3641A68 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medici... THC dyregulates glutamate transmission and it is probably responsible for hallucination (positive symptoms) in schizophrenia. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26987641/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26987641/
mind-blight 2y ago
Most of the research I'm aware of shows the the link isn't causal. There aren't higher cases of schizophrenia in countries with higher cannabis use than without. Specifically, US teens use marijuana at much higher levels than many European and Asian teens, but rates of schizophrenia appear to be the same. ETA: Andrew Huberman did a podcast with Dr. Matthew Hill (a researcher in Canada) that covers a lot of the most recent days and studies
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ben_w 2y ago
I've heard that weed needs a widely varying dose from person to person for an effect; and that because of this, when it wasn't legal, vendors would often mix it with a very small dose of LSD. It is also widely claimed that LSD has a much stronger association with schizophrenia than weed, so if weed only has this sometimes (e.g. never when it's self-grown) that may explain why it's hard to pin down a link. Hidden confounding variable that may change at any point but only in a subset of your study group.
- chillingeffect 2y ago
  LSD is a delicate molecule. It can not be smoked or vaporized. Low amounts of heat or sunlight will degrade it quickly. Whoever you heard this from was spreading false information.
  - rolph 2y ago
    if there was a massive dose adulterating the weed, yes it would cross over. albert hoffman began his famous golden bicycle ride after what he presumed to be crossover from a cigarette. a potent artificial sweetener was discovered this way.
    - Simon_ORourke 2y ago
      This is nonsense, bordering on tripe.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    The context in which it was suggested was edibles, not smoking or vaping. And was given to me as a reason why the edibles I had tried that one time made me hallucinate that everything was blue.
    - gtvwill 2y ago
      If you don't consume high amounts of thc on the regular and also pending the terpene mix of the plant you consume, you can definitely hallucinate off cannabis. I ran a very vague "dab olympics" comp once at a festival. It was in the early days of dabbing becoming a thing. Someone gave us an ouce or so of the stuff and we did out doses about as thick as a piece of string and about an inch long. Turns out that's a monumental dose of thc. The rules of the comp were, come have a dab then come back and tell us about your experience. Have another and do the same on day 2. We picked the winner off who enjoyed it the most/actually remembered to come back for a yarn ans so on. Gave away a 200 buck dab rig. Free entry. The amount of folks who hadn't consumed cannabis before and came back with stories of the most visual hallucinations and body trip experiences was pretty surprising. Turns out we send a few folks who were regular lsd consumers off to the moon and back. Woops. No injuries, was a pretty fun weekend. Sample size of about 30 lol.
GeekyBear 2y ago
The studies I've seen found that there was a real link, but it was for people who were genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia. As a result, if you have a family history of schizophrenia, you'd be better off abstaining. The scare story bit was that just because there was a real link found in people who were genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia, the same level of danger applied to everyone else.
yndoendo 2y ago
My understand is that a person may have innate schizophrenia and it is currently inactive or non-negative experience. Some people will go their who life without it becoming active or negatively impacting and live just fine. While it may become active or negatively impacting for a person because of a physical injury, drugs, or physiological event. More complex than the simple idea that cannabis will give you schizophrenia. But people prefer simplistic ideas over complex ones. Similar to how "smoking gives you cancer" where in reality it continually increases the chance of developing cancer, treatable or terminal, with persistent usage.

by rcpt 2y ago

HPsquared 2y ago

Indeed it could be a self-medication thing like how ADHD symptoms are (temporarily) relieved somewhat by nicotine.

FollowingTheDao 2y ago

It is not a scare story, it is well researched. Effects men more than women. This is from last year: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/ociation-between-cannabis-use-disorder-and-schizophrenia-stronger-in-young-males-than-in-females/E1F8F0E09C6541CB8529A326C3641A68 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medici... THC dyregulates glutamate transmission and it is probably responsible for hallucination (positive symptoms) in schizophrenia. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26987641/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26987641/

mind-blight 2y ago

Most of the research I'm aware of shows the the link isn't causal. There aren't higher cases of schizophrenia in countries with higher cannabis use than without. Specifically, US teens use marijuana at much higher levels than many European and Asian teens, but rates of schizophrenia appear to be the same. ETA: Andrew Huberman did a podcast with Dr. Matthew Hill (a researcher in Canada) that covers a lot of the most recent days and studies

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ben_w 2y ago

I've heard that weed needs a widely varying dose from person to person for an effect; and that because of this, when it wasn't legal, vendors would often mix it with a very small dose of LSD. It is also widely claimed that LSD has a much stronger association with schizophrenia than weed, so if weed only has this sometimes (e.g. never when it's self-grown) that may explain why it's hard to pin down a link. Hidden confounding variable that may change at any point but only in a subset of your study group.

chillingeffect 2y ago
LSD is a delicate molecule. It can not be smoked or vaporized. Low amounts of heat or sunlight will degrade it quickly. Whoever you heard this from was spreading false information.
- rolph 2y ago
  if there was a massive dose adulterating the weed, yes it would cross over. albert hoffman began his famous golden bicycle ride after what he presumed to be crossover from a cigarette. a potent artificial sweetener was discovered this way.
  - Simon_ORourke 2y ago
    This is nonsense, bordering on tripe.
- ben_w 2y ago
  The context in which it was suggested was edibles, not smoking or vaping. And was given to me as a reason why the edibles I had tried that one time made me hallucinate that everything was blue.
  - gtvwill 2y ago
    If you don't consume high amounts of thc on the regular and also pending the terpene mix of the plant you consume, you can definitely hallucinate off cannabis. I ran a very vague "dab olympics" comp once at a festival. It was in the early days of dabbing becoming a thing. Someone gave us an ouce or so of the stuff and we did out doses about as thick as a piece of string and about an inch long. Turns out that's a monumental dose of thc. The rules of the comp were, come have a dab then come back and tell us about your experience. Have another and do the same on day 2. We picked the winner off who enjoyed it the most/actually remembered to come back for a yarn ans so on. Gave away a 200 buck dab rig. Free entry. The amount of folks who hadn't consumed cannabis before and came back with stories of the most visual hallucinations and body trip experiences was pretty surprising. Turns out we send a few folks who were regular lsd consumers off to the moon and back. Woops. No injuries, was a pretty fun weekend. Sample size of about 30 lol.

GeekyBear 2y ago

The studies I've seen found that there was a real link, but it was for people who were genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia. As a result, if you have a family history of schizophrenia, you'd be better off abstaining. The scare story bit was that just because there was a real link found in people who were genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia, the same level of danger applied to everyone else.

yndoendo 2y ago

My understand is that a person may have innate schizophrenia and it is currently inactive or non-negative experience. Some people will go their who life without it becoming active or negatively impacting and live just fine. While it may become active or negatively impacting for a person because of a physical injury, drugs, or physiological event. More complex than the simple idea that cannabis will give you schizophrenia. But people prefer simplistic ideas over complex ones. Similar to how "smoking gives you cancer" where in reality it continually increases the chance of developing cancer, treatable or terminal, with persistent usage.