Adolescent Cannabis Use & Psychotic Disorders Study: Factsheet & FAQs - Public Health Institute
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This is one of the largest and strongest studies to date linking adolescent cannabis use to the risk of developing serious psychiatric disordersThis longitudinal study…

Study.

Adolescents who use cannabis could face a significantly higher risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders by young adulthood, according to a large new study published today in JAMA Health Forum. The longitudinal study followed 463,396 adolescents ages 13 to 17 through age 26 and found that past-year cannabis use during adolescence was associated with a significantly higher risk of incident psychotic (doubled), bipolar (doubled), depressive and anxiety disorders.

The study analyzed electronic health record data from routine pediatric visits between 2016 and 2023. Cannabis use preceded psychiatric diagnoses by an average of 1.7 to 2.3 years. The study’s longitudinal design strengthens evidence that adolescent cannabis exposure is a potential risk factor for developing mental illness.

Unlike many prior studies, the research examined any self-reported past-year cannabis use, with universal screening of teens during standard pediatric care, rather than focusing only on heavy use or cannabis use disorder.

The study also found that cannabis use was more common among adolescents enrolled in Medicaid and those living in more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods, raising concerns that expanding cannabis commercialization could exacerbate existing mental health disparities.

  • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
    361·
    6 days ago

    Additionally, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are both heritable conditions, and if a parent or grandparent has one of these diagnoses, the family is significantly more likely to also be experiencing poverty or other adverse events, which in turn makes it more likely that the predisposed child will develop the inherited condition.

    • reabsorbthelight@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      The author’s used statistical control methods for socioeconomic factors.

      Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to measure the strength of associations between adolescent cannabis use and incident psychiatric diagnoses, with adjustments for sex, race and ethnicity, neighborhood deprivation index, insurance type, and time-varying alcohol and other substance use.

      https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2845356

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      I used to smoke a lot of weed in high school and after for a bit. One day, the panic set in. It wasn’t always, but the frequency definitely increased slowly, until eventually the risk of having a panic sesh became too much for me to be able to enjoy smoking.

      Kind of unrelated and in the middle of all this, I remember talking to my old man, and he had lived a similar life to the one I was, at the time, currently leaving. He smoked a bunch of weed until, one day, couldn’t do it any longer because of the panicks.

      So I definitely anecodotally agree with the ineritableness, and I certainly agree and am an example of the idea that cannabis can bring out symptoms similar to schizophrenic episodes. And they are so far from my norm that I really can’t attribute it to anything but the pots.

      I’ve always felt that mental disorders can be like a switch, you flip it and it turns on, kinda. And the flipping can be the result of something external, life events, trauma, and drug and alcohol use. I had a friend who I smoked with often as a kid who eventually kinda disappeared into a world of mental issues, and I wonder if it would’ve been the same had he not smoked.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        He smoked a bunch of weed until, one day, couldn’t do it any longer because of the panicks.

        But the weed he smoked was 10X less potent.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      35·
      4 days ago

      schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are both heritable conditions

      Also fake news.

      Again correlation (assumed) does not make causation. There is literally no gene for these symptoms.

      • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
        7·
        4 days ago

        You’re just going around saying “correlation doesn’t equal causation” to everything regardless of context. Feel free to expound.

        No, there definitely isn’t “a gene” for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, just like there isn’t “a gene” for hair or eye color, two other traits that are highly heritable.

        Here’s just one source for you on this, and there are many more if you care to take a look:

        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445022/

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
          51·
          4 days ago

          You cannot discuss marijuana risks on the internet without triggering pot users.

          Since legalization, the landscape of pediatrics has changed in Canada to address THC-related disorders. And we have a whole new class of risk in adults from cannabis use disorder.

          https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37766508/

          The internet will not accept this, and keep the lie alive that cannabis is not addictive. No, we have not seen friends burn out on pot and remove themselves from life.

          • texture@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            4 days ago

            “cannabis is not addictive”

            true.

            edit - “friends burn out on pot and remove themselves from life” - this is an impressively far reach. wow

      • ChexMax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Oh sheesh. It runs in families. They’re saying growing up with a schizophrenic parent exposes you to stress that makes you more likely to indulge in pot. Their point stands.