Long-time cannabis use linked to psychosis | Hacker News Reader

Long-time cannabis use linked to psychosis

google.com

10 pointstokenadult20 comments

This was not a prospective study, but instead was conducted by survey - the least reliable measurement instrument that I am aware of. Nevertheless, the authors didn't do too much begging of the question. They used the term 'linked' judiciously, and admitted that the disease process already seemed to have started before commencement of marijuana use.

Had they claimed that marijuana use causes psychosis, I would be screaming "Ascertainment bias!" But they refrained; so shall I.

Is it possible that these people are self-medicating?

They did mention a correlation even with sibling pairs, though.

It is very unlikely that so many kids that are not even 21 years old are self-medicating.

The article does not mention it very clearly, but these are actually results on a study following kids from birth, interviewed at roughly 5,14, and 21 years after birth.

"Self-medication" doesn't necessarily mean you read medical journals then decided the objectively optimal thing to do is to toke up. Instead it means that someone 1) decided that getting high sounds like it could be a pleasant experience or otherwise worth trying (i.e. possibly correlated with feeling unhappy or off-kilter to begin with). 2) this person decided to keep toking up because it improves their mental state somehow.

Yeah, that is what I meant by self medication (similarly, many do this with alcohol and nicotine).

"possibly correlated with feeling unhappy or off-kilter"

Very likely, it's called puberty. To me that does not mean they are "self-medicating" though.

But everyone goes through puberty while only a few are driven to heavy drug use. Given that I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that heavy drug use is related to some existing mental health problem. Since mental health problems could also make someone prone to psychosis I think the theory of self medication is a valid one.

If over 30% of a group that were born in a three year period in the same hospital do heavy drug use (>3 years), then there must be a pretty big problem in that area.

You're still missing the meaning of 'self-medicating' which is a lot more broad. Drinking a cup of coffee to become alert, smoking a cigarette to calm your nerves, smoking a joint because it modifies or muffles your anxiety etc are all types of self-medication.

My apologies, IMO self-medication would be taking medication or something that actually helps you. Sure, coffee/alcohol/tobacco all can help very temporarily. If you're using that over prolonged periods of time, I would call that substance abuse.

I know that marihuana can help with or provide pain relief for a lot of ailments. But these kinds of ailments are typically not found in kids under 21.

Nothing too conclusive here, or causal. Toke on! :)

Yes, wait for evidence that it's going to cause you problems longer term. Having had two friends go into institutions because of this very problem, I'll never touch the stuff again. It may be that it's not causal. It may be genetic. But according to the doctors in the hospital it's a common coincident factor they see in cannabis use.

Glad to see it's being investigated.

I strongly believe the connection is at least partly causal. And since there is no way to know if you are predisposed to schizophrenia or not, you're basically just rolling the dice on your mental health.

That being said, it's pretty much a miracle drug when used for medical purposes. And even using it socially isn't that bad as long as your brain is already fully developed and you aren't abusing it.

anecdote != data

MedPage Today link with more details of study design:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Addictions/18722

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_effects_of_cannabis#M...

Long-time <yet another thing> use harms.

I really don't like the drug culture on sites like Reddit. Otherwise interesting content, but non-stop pro-marijuana stuff in your face.

I'm anti-drugs (except for approved OTC/Rx drugs), personally. Keep it real, I say.

You do realize the irony of "I'm anti-drugs (except for approved OTC/Rx drugs), personally. Keep it real, I say." right?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com