psychosis Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Marijuana and Schizophrenia?

The AHA! Team — Fri, 31 May 2024 05:31:56 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – The evidence linking cannabis use to psychotic disorders is considered strong enough to warrant a public health warning. “Even as proponents of [cannabis] legalization contend that smoked marijuana is a harmless natural substance that improves the quality of life, a growing body of evidence links it in a small but significant number of users to…the induction or aggravation of psychosis.” “Psychotic disorders are arguably the most serious of mental illnesses, the best known being schizophrenia.” “Schizophrenia, an illness that is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and odd behavior, is among the top 10 leading causes of disability in the United States. It affects approximately 1% of the general population.” Can cannabis cause it? Schizophrenia… affects approximately 1% of the general population As I discuss in my video Does Marijuana Cause Schizophrenia?, over the last half-century, “nearly 2,000 studies have been published on this topic…and the pro-psychotic effects of cannabis have dominated media reporting about this drug. But how clear is the link?” Population studies have “consistently demonstrated a strong, positive, and dose-dependent association between cannabis use and the risk of psychotic disorders.” Indeed, studies have shown that the more cannabis people use, the more likely they are to be psychotic, as seen in a chart below and at 1:10 in my video. However, that doesn’t mean cannabis is the cause. It could just be a correlation or even a consequence of the disease. “The link between cannabis and psychosis is well established,” but it may be the case that patients with mental health problems self-medicate and “use cannabis to relieve their distress.” The link between cannabis and psychosis is well established… As you can see below and at 1:38 in my video, there isn’t only a link between cannabis and psychosis in snapshot-in-time cross-sectional studies, but in cohort studies as well, where people are followed over time. Research has shown that cannabis use often precedes psychosis, not the other way around. Now, it goes without saying that “the vast majority of people who use cannabis do not develop psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, and many people diagnosed with such disorders have never used cannabis.” But, overall, these studies are considered to be “strong enough evidence to warrant a public health message that cannabis use can increase the risk of psychotic disorders.” There is another potential explanation: Even though cannabis use precedes schizophrenia, could it be that whichever genes drive schizophrenia also make it more likely you start smoking pot? The biggest strike against the cannabis-schizophrenia link is country-by-country ecological studies that don’t seem to show more disease in areas where there’s more use. And, overall, schizophrenia rates seem to have remained stable or even gone down worldwide since the 1960s, even though there’s been a big bump in cannabis use since then. If about 10 percent of schizophrenia cases are attributable to marijuana use and there’s been a fourfold increase in use, why hasn’t there been a 40 percent increase in the prevalence of schizophrenia? The problem with that argument is “there is little reliable evidence on the temporal [true] trends in the incidence of schizophrenia, so it is difficult to know whether this statement is true or not.” Perhaps it’s more of an issue with potency rather than just cannabis in general. Indeed, “the incidence of schizophrenia is higher in countries…where high-potency cannabis has taken over the market compared with countries…where more traditional forms of cannabis are smoked.” The bottom line is you don’t know until you put it to the test. You can’t just randomize kids to cannabis, but, in a way, Nature set up a natural experiment for us. There are genes that kids randomly get that can increase their likelihood of smoking pot. Do those kids then go on to have a higher risk of schizophrenia? Yes, research “findings strongly support” all of those population studies that suggest “cannabis plays a causal [cause-and-effect] role in the development of schizophrenia.” Okay, but by how much? Let’s break it down. Even if cannabis use doubles the risk, that would mean only going from a 7-in-1,000 chance of developing a psychosis to 14 in 1,000. So, going from a 1 in 140 chance to a 1 in 70 chance. It would be different if schizophrenia runs in your family, where a doubling of risk could mean going from a one-in-ten chance to one in five, but, on a population scale, it could take thousands of cannabis users quitting to prevent a single case of schizophrenia. So, from a public health standpoint, “addiction is a far more common problem.” Researchers “estimate that people who try cannabis are ninefold more likely to become addicted to it”—even though that itself is relatively rare—“than to develop psychosis in their lifetime.” I have an entire series of videos on cannabis, which I originally released in a webinar and downloadable digital DVD. Key Takeaways Although some proponents of cannabis legalization argue that marijuana is a “harmless natural substance that improves the quality of life,” it has been linked “in a small but significant number of users to…the induction or aggravation of psychosis.” Schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder characterized by hallucinations, odd behavior, and delusions, affects about 1 percent of the general population. Studies have found that the more cannabis people use, the more likely they are to be psychotic, but that could just be a correlation or even a consequence of the disease. Individuals with mental health problems may self-medicate and use cannabis to relieve distress, for example. Research has found that cannabis use often precedes psychosis, not the other way around. Overall, there appears to be “strong enough evidence to warrant a public health message that cannabis use can increase the risk of psychotic disorders.” There does not seem to be more disease in regions with greater cannabis use. Overall, schizophrenia rates appear to have remained stable or even declined worldwide since the 1960s, despite a large jump in cannabis use since then. Potency may be a bigger issue. In countries with higher potency cannabis, the incidence of schizophrenia is higher than in countries with “more traditional forms.” Some genes can increase our likelihood of using cannabis, and kids who randomly get them have been found to have a higher risk of schizophrenia. Research suggests that cannabis may have a cause-and-effect role in the development of that psychosis. Even if cannabis use doubles the risk, however, that would just mean a 1-in-70 chance of developing a psychosis without a family history of schizophrenia. From a public health standard, the far more common problem is addiction. To read the original article click here.

The post Marijuana and Schizophrenia? appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Today’s Marijuana Is Much More Dangerous, and That’s Leading to Addiction and Psychotic Episodes

AHA Publisher — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 07:22:24 +0000

News Staff CBN News – Today’s marijuana is nothing like the pot used by previous generations. It’s much, much stronger. Decades ago the THC content was three percent. Today it’s anywhere from 15 to 30 percent. A recent study in a major medical journal found high potency marijuana is linked to a greater risk of addiction. The detailed research paper by mental health experts also warns about those higher concentrations of THC and the chemical’s terrible impact on the mind, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and more. The authors explained that people who used cannabis with higher THC levels were more likely to have a “psychotic episode.” On this week’s Healthy Living program, CBN News Medical Reporter Lorie Johnson talked to a young man who not only became addicted to marijuana but also suffered from cannabis-induced psychosis. Zach Plant told Healthy Living how using cannabis gave him a mental disorder. “In my experience, cannabis-induced psychosis is something that happened for me from smoking way too much marijuana,” he said. “And it triggered my brain to go into a mode where I was very manic, I had very manic thinking and a lot of paranoid thinking in a short amount of time.” During the interview, Plant said this paranoid thinking included fears of others trying to attack him. “Whenever I was induced psychosis by cannabis, I had thoughts of other people wanting to hurt me,” Plant told CBN News. “Thoughts of the only way of being safe was to end my own life. It went very quickly to suicidal thinking.” He recalled that he even operated a vehicle while under the effects of cannabis and was in total blackout mentally. “I don’t remember getting to where I needed to go, but somehow just ending up there,” Plant said. “I do have brief memories of swerving on the road and things like that. It’s really just a miracle that I’m still alive after an experience like that.” The young man explained his cannabis tolerance became so high that he would have to smoke more to feel its effects for 30 minutes to an hour. “At first, I would smoke one time and the effects would last for several hours,” Plant said. “My tolerance had been so high at that point, I was ingesting a lot more.” This led to a manic episode. “My manic episode was thinking that I had all the answers for what was wrong in the world,” he said. As several U.S. states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, drug-related issues have risen. Arkansas voters will decide on the question on Nov. 8 after the state Supreme Court ruled Issue 4, the Marijuana Legalization Initiative could appear on the ballot. David Cox, assistant director of the Arkansas-based Family Council told American Family News (AFN) that voters need to look at the problems caused by cannabis use that several of those other states are just now finding out about. “For example … in Oregon legalization of marijuana hasn’t weakened the drug cartels, but it has actually emboldened them,” he said. “In other states, we see youth marijuana use and youth drug use increase with legalization.” Cox also noted that the social cost to the local community is too high to support the legalized retail sales of cannabis. “If you start selling marijuana retail in a community, obviously you see drug use increase – and so there is a social cost here that we feel is just too high. That is one of the reasons why we oppose the legalization of marijuana.” Others who support the legalization of pot argue it will bring in more revenue to the Natural State through sales taxes. But Cox argues it’s not as much in revenue as people think due to the low amount of taxes that will be levied on marijuana due to Issue 4. “So, a lot of people may think that ‘hey, we’ll legalize marijuana in Arkansas, it will bring this windfall to the state, we’ll get all this tax revenue,'” he told AFN. “The reality is the taxes in this amendment are very low and your elected officials will not be able to raise those taxes without having to actually change the state constitution.” As CBN News reported in November of 2018 when Massachusetts became the first state on the U.S. East Coast to legalize marijuana and begin commercial sales, the legalization of the drug comes at a cost. A report released ahead of Massachusetts’ action outlined economic and social effects in the wake of marijuana legalization in Colorado. The findings by the Colorado Christian University’s (CCU) Centennial Institute are pretty stark: For every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent roughly $4.50 to mitigate the adverse effects of legalization. The largest costs of legalizing the drug are related to the health care system and high school dropouts. Calls to poison control have increased dramatically since legalization. Long-term use can lead to reduced cognitive ability. Jeff Hunt serves as vice president of public policy at CCU and director of the Centennial Institute. He said the report is an important first step in “giving researchers and policymakers a sense of the breadth of costs associated with commercial marijuana.” To read the original article click here.

The post Today’s Marijuana Is Much More Dangerous, and That’s Leading to Addiction and Psychotic Episodes appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

High-Strength Cannabis Linked to Addiction and Mental Health Problems

AHA Publisher — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 07:00:57 +0000

University of Bath via Newswise – As the strength or potency of cannabis products has increased internationally over the years, so have rates of people being treated for cannabis addiction, say the authors of a new study. Researchers from the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath (UK) systematically analysed the relationship between the types of cannabis people use and their addiction and mental health problems. Their work draws on 20 studies involving almost 120,000 people. After alcohol and nicotine, cannabis is the most widely used drug globally. Latest estimates from the UK suggest that over the last year around one in five 16-24 year olds had used cannabis. Cannabis potency refers to the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in cannabis – the key psychoactive drug it contains. Recent studies from the same team at Bath have found that the concentration of THC in cannabis has increased significantly over time meaning that cannabis used today is typically much stronger than previously. The new study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, suggests that people who use high potency cannabis are more likely to experience addiction than those using low potency products. It also suggests that people using high potency cannabis are more likely to experience a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia. These findings may help to explain why more people have received treatment for cannabis problems over recent years. Data from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction show a 76% increase in people entering treatment for cannabis addiction in the past decade. Based on these new results, the authors argue that public health guidelines and policies to help make cannabis use safer should be encouraged. Lead author, Kat Petrilli from the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology explained: “Our systematic review found that people who use higher potency cannabis could be at increased risks of addiction as well as psychosis when compared to people who use cannabis products with lower potencies. “These results are important in the context of harm reduction which aims to minimise the negative consequences associated with drug use. While the safest level of use for cannabis is of course ‘no use’, it is important to acknowledge that a significant number of people across the world use cannabis regularly and to ensure they can make informed decisions that could reduce any possible harms associated with it.” The authors point out that strategies to make cannabis use safer could inform how the drug is regulated in the UK and internationally. Recreational cannabis use remains illegal in the UK, but cannabis products are now legally sold for recreational use in Canada, Uruguay, and parts of the USA. Several other countries appear set to follow this trend, including Germany. In the UK, the Liberal Democrats have argued that a legal regulated market could make cannabis use safer by enforcing a limit on the potency of cannabis products, and investing the revenue and savings from this into education and treatment for cannabis problems. Senior author, Dr Tom Freeman explained: “Our findings suggest that people who use cannabis could reduce their risk of harm by using lower potency products. In places where cannabis is legally sold, providing consumers with accurate information on product content and access to lower potency products could help people to use cannabis more safely.” Despite anecdotal evidence of links between cannabis and anxiety and depression, the authors note that the links between cannabis potency and other mental health problems are unclear. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. To read the original article click here.

The post High-Strength Cannabis Linked to Addiction and Mental Health Problems appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

A Smartphone Technology to Diagnose Psychiatric Diseases

AHA Publisher — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 07:00:52 +0000

ISRAEL21c Staff via Israel21c – According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from diagnosable psychiatric disorders such as clinical depression or schizophrenia. But they can only be diagnosed based on the observation and description of symptoms. That’s the problem Israeli medical startup Montfort (Mon4T) aims to solve with its newly launched Brain Profiler. This science-based method looks at mental disorders as brain disturbances that can be accurately diagnosed in a clinical manner. Developed by practicing psychiatrist and Technion lecturer Dr. Abraham Peled, the approach bridges between classical psychiatry and computational neuroscience. “We cannot fix a system if we do not know exactly what is wrong with it. It is absolutely critical that we discover the causes of mental disorders if we ever hope to cure them,” Peled said. “The frustration of not being able to truly cure these patients drove me to change my approaches and connect to the digital world and to algorithms, including Montfort’s EncephaLog application.” Montfort already uses smartphone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide FDA-cleared digital neurological tests for patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. As a result of the cooperation with Peled in the past year, Montfort added to its test protocol indicators assessing anxiety, depression and more. Montfort translates the collected digital indicators into terms that psychiatrists are familiar with, such as depression, anxiety or psychosis, and suggests a neurological explanation, said Peled. “As a next step, the diagnosed network disturbance will be demonstrated by EEG, a procedure that was previously very complicated to conduct and therefore available only in hospitals, but is now available to any patient at home.” The Brain Profiler will also be used far from home soon, as it was selected as one of the technologies to accompany Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe on his journey to the International Space Station at the beginning of 2022. The astronauts will use the Montfort app to do motor and cognitive self-tests while physicians on Earth monitor their functioning in real time. Montfort CEO Dr. Ziv Yekutieli said, “With the complexity of the human brain in general, and psychiatric disorders in particular, psychiatrists have a hard time keeping up with advances in other medical fields. A practitioner has to take clinical decisions based on subjective and non-quantitative data, which is gathered at random, short clinical visits, that do not reflect the patient’s actual status throughout his or her daily life. These difficulties limit the psychiatrist’s ability to treat the patient optimally, and limit pharmaceutical companies’ ability to develop new drugs.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

The post A Smartphone Technology to Diagnose Psychiatric Diseases appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Infant Sleep Problems Can Signal Mental Disorders in Adolescents

AHA Publisher — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 07:00:39 +0000

University of Birmingham via EurekAlert– Specific sleep problems among babies and very young children can be linked to mental disorders in adolescents, a new study has found. A team at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology studied questionnaire data from the Children of the 90s, a UK-based longitudinal study which recruited pregnant mothers of 14,000 babies when it was set up almost three decades ago. They found that young children who routinely woke up frequently during the night and experienced irregular sleep routines were associated with psychotic experiences as adolescents. They also found that children who slept for shorter periods at night and went to bed later, were more likely to be associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) during their teenage years. Lead researcher, Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz, explained: “We know from previous research that persistent nightmares in children have been associated with both psychosis and borderline personality disorder. But nightmares do not tell the whole story – we’ve found that, in fact, a number of behavioural sleep problems in childhood can point towards these problems in adolescence.” The researchers examined questionnaire data from more than 7,000 participants reporting on psychotic symptoms in adolescence, and more than 6,000 reporting on BPD symptoms in adolescence. The data analysed is from the Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort) which was set up by the University of Bristol. Sleep behaviour among participants was reported by parents when the children were 6, 18 and 30 months, and assessed again at 3.5, 4.8 and 5.8 years old. The results, published in JAMA Psychiatry, show particular associations between infants at 18 months old who tended to wake more frequently at night and who had less regular sleep routines from 6 months old, with psychotic experiences in adolescence. This supports existing evidence that insomnia contributes to psychosis, but suggests that these difficulties may be already present years before psychotic experiences occur. The team also found that children who had less sleep during the night and went to bed later at the age of three-and-a-half years were related to BPD symptoms. These results suggest a specific pathway from toddlers through to adolescents with BPD, which is separate from the pathway linked with psychosis. Finally, the researchers investigated whether the links between infant sleep and mental disorders in teenagers could be mediated by symptoms of depression in children aged 10 years old. They found that depression mediated the links between childhood sleep problems and the onset of psychosis in adolescents, but this mediation was not observed in BPD, suggesting the existence of a direct association between sleep problems and BPD symptoms. Professor Steven Marwaha, senior author on the study, added: “We know that adolescence is a key developmental period to study the onset of many mental disorders, including psychosis or BPD. This is because of particular brain and hormonal changes which occur at this stage. It’s crucial to identify risk factors that might increase the vulnerability of adolescents to the development of these disorders, identify those at high risk, and deliver effective interventions. This study helps us understand this process, and what the targets might be. “Sleep may be one of the most important underlying factors – and it’s one that we can influence with effective, early interventions, so it’s important that we understand these links.” To read the original article click here.

The post Infant Sleep Problems Can Signal Mental Disorders in Adolescents appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

In Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic, a Crashing Wave of Neuropsychiatric Problems?

AHA Publisher — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 07:00:49 +0000

University of California – San Diego via EurekAlert – Past pandemics suggest some of those exposed to novel coronavirus could face heightened risk for a range of brain diseases and disorders, from depression and psychosis to immune complications of the central nervous system. In an article posted online April 13, 2020 in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, a trio of researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggest that in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a host of neuropsychiatric challenges may remain — or emerge — for those recovering from COVID-19 infections. “Past pandemics have demonstrated that diverse types of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as encephalopathy, mood changes, psychosis, neuromuscular dysfunction or demyelinating processes, may accompany acute viral infection, or may follow infection by weeks, months, or longer in recovered patients,” the authors warn. “Our article seeks to bring the medical community’s attention to the need for monitoring and investigations to mitigate such outcomes, not to cause panic among individuals whose lives are already greatly affected by this pandemic.” Encephalopathy is a broad term for any insult that alters brain function or structure, and therefore one’s mental status. Demyelination is loss of the protective myelin sheathing of nerve cells, resulting in neurological problems. “COVID-19 is a significant psychological stressor, both for individuals and communities,” said senior author Suzi Hong, PhD, associate professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “There are fears of illness, death and uncertainty of the future. This pandemic is a potential source of direct and vicarious traumatization for everyone.” But less attention, wrote Hong and co-authors Emily Troyer, MD, and Jordan Kohn, PhD, has been focused on the impact the virus itself may have on the human central nervous system (CNS) and related neuropsychiatric outcomes. The authors noted that studies of past respiratory viral pandemics indicate diverse types of neuropsychiatric symptoms can arise, including increased incidence of insomnia, anxiety, depression, mania, suicidality, and delirium, which followed influenza pandemics in the 18th and 19th centuries. “Encephalitis lethargica is an inflammatory disorder of the CNS marked by hypersomnolence (abnormal sleepiness), psychosis, catatonia, and Parkinsonism. Incidence increased around the time of the 1918 pandemic,” said the authors. During more recent viral outbreaks, such as SARS-CoV-1 in 2003, H1N1 in 2009, and MERS-CoV in 2012, there were subsequent reports of higher rates of narcolepsy, seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), Guillain-Barre syndrome and other neuromuscular and demyelinating conditions. “Reports are already surfacing of acute CNS-associated symptoms in individuals affected by COVID-19,” said Hong, including greater stroke incidence in severely infected patients in Wuhan, China, along with delirium and loss of smell and taste senses. (A survey of UC San Diego Health patients treated for COVID-19, published April 12, 2020 issue of International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, described the first empirical findings strongly associating sensory loss with COVID-19. The loss was temporary, said the authors, with taste and smell returning within two to four weeks of infection.) Hong, Troyer and Kohn say the neuropsychiatric consequences of the current novel coronavirus pandemic are not yet known, but likely will be significant and last for years. They said emerging evidence suggests the biomedical community should begin monitoring for symptoms of neuropsychiatric conditions and the neuroimmune status of persons exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. “We will need to do this at different points in their lives, for years to come, to fully appreciate this pandemic’s effects on neuropsychiatric outcomes for differing age groups, and how to better prepare for pandemics to come,” Hong said. To read the original article click here.

The post In Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic, a Crashing Wave of Neuropsychiatric Problems? appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.