I could literally spend all day posting links and info from reputable sources which validate my brother's experience with marijuana, but here are just a few:
Cambridge Journals Online - Abstract
Editorial
The link between cannabis use and psychosis: furthering the debate
LOUISA DEGENHARDT c1
Abstract
The issue of whether an association exists between cannabis and psychosis exists, and why, has received considerable attention in recent years (Hall, 1998; Mueser et al. 1998; Blanchard et al. 2000; Degenhardt & Hall, 2002). There are probably a number of reasons for the sustained interest. First, psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are often chronic or recurring (Mason et al. 1996), are associated with significant disability (Keith et al. 1991) and they place a considerable burden upon the community at large (Hall et al. 1985; Knapp, 1997). Secondly, over the past few decades, high rates of cannabis use and use disorders have been observed among persons with schizophrenia and other psychoses (Barbee et al. 1989; Fowler et al. 1998), suggesting the possibility that cannabis use may be causally related to psychotic disorders. Thirdly, given what is known about the psychotomimetic effects of cannabis (Hall et al. 2001), it is plausible that high doses of cannabis may produce psychotic symptoms. Finally, clinical research with persons with psychotic disorders has found that problematical substance use is correlated with a range of negative outcomes including relapse, rehospitalization, poor medication compliance, poorer social functioning and increased treatment costs (Salyers & Mueser, 2001), suggesting drug use may be related to worsened clinical outcomes.
Cannabis and psychosis | Better Health Channel
Summary
Cannabis use can cause drug-induced psychosis, trigger the first episode of a psychotic illness, or make a pre-existing psychotic illness worse. Cannabis comes in three forms - as either marijuana, hashish or hash oil. People who have, or may be at risk of developing, a psychotic illness should avoid using cannabis.
Cannabis can precipitate the first episode of psychosis
If someone has a predisposition to a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia, use of drugs such as cannabis may trigger the first episode in what can be a lifelong, disabling condition.
Cannabis psychosis
The drug induced psychosis seen when Cannabis is the main substance being abused is distinct phenomenologically from other psychosis.
It is unusual for such a psychosis to occur without other drugs being involved to some extent and so it is difficult to tease out the differences between the effects of Cannabis and other drugs.
However it is misleading and dangerous, to our youth in particular, to label Cannabis as “soft”. In fact the serious adverse effects of Cannabis have been known for some time now and Hall and Solowij in the British Journal of Psychiatry sounded warnings in 1997 about such issues as dependence on Cannabis, adolescent developmental problems, permanent cognitive impairment as well as involvement in and the development of psychosis.[1]
There are suggestions that in a small number of cases Cannabis is capable of precipitating psychosis, going on to the chronic picture described below, in people who have had no family and personal history of psychiatric illness.There have been suggestions that such people may be the ones who have started Cannabis in their teens and caused disturbance to neural connectivity. However, it seems Cannabis can precipitate or exacerbate a schizophrenic tendency in a characteristic manner.[2]
ACUTE SYMPTOMS OF CANNABIS PSYCHOSIS
International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10)
Often the combination of symptoms makes one suspicious that schizophrenia is present but at the same time there is an affective component. There may be the suspicion that the condition, either in part of whole, is feigned for reasons that are unclear because the pattern of symptoms do not fall easily into the usual criteria for psychosis. Drug taking is often denied, or the amount that is admitted by the patient is so little that one cannot say that this accounts for the current symptoms. Worse still, patients may not even consider Cannabis as an illicit or dangerous drug and so do not mention using it. Hallucinations are vague and delusions may be transitory with little in the way of thought disorder. There is often a lack of volition and a history of gradually deteriorating social ability and contact with others, including significant others. This history will often be verified by relatives and close friends who may be either completely ignorant of the drug taking, or confirm that there has been some in the past but believe that there has been little drug taking recently. There is often a depressive component with suicide attempts in the past but nothing recent or, if there is, then they are only ineffectual pleas for help. The person has usually lost his or her job some months or weeks before due to their poor performance at work. There is often very poor memory and concentration, which may be marked at the time of presentation. Paranoid delusions may be present and quite severe which can be the most alarming psychotic feature and result in hospital admission. If confronted with aggressive and authoritarian staff, who indicate verbally or non-verbally, that they do not believe the patient, the patient may become violent or simply leave against medical advice. There is a slow and gradual effect of cannabis and the symptoms continue to worsen for some time after the person stops using it. Thus by the time of presentation the person may be so disorganised and confused that they can’t even arrange their next “cone” or “joint”. Over the following few days the symptoms ease quickly. The improvement is easily credited to the neuroleptics and/or the antidepressants, which may in fact have contributed to the improvement. Symptoms such as the paranoia, hallucinations and depression fade until the patient is allowed to go on leave from the hospital and, a worsening of the symptoms may follow this. More often than not the nursing staff are the first to become suspicious that drugs have been taken when the patient is on leave from the hospital.
It could even be that the drug screen only indicated small dose drug taking or even absent. The International Classification of Disease indicates the following symptoms due to Cannabis.
“There must be dysfunctional behaviour, as evidenced by at least one at of the following:
(1) Apathy and sedation
(2) Disinhibition
(3) Psychomotor retardation
(4) Impaired attention
(5) Impaired judgement
(6) Interference with personal functioning.
C. At least one of the following signs must be present:
(1) Drowsiness
(2) Slurred speech
(3) Pupillary constriction (except in anoxia from severe overdose, when pupillary dilatation occurs)
(4) Decreased level of consciousness (e.g. Stupor, coma)
F12.0 Acute intoxication due to use of cannabinoids F12.0 DCR-10
A. The general criteria for acute intoxication (F1x.0) must be met.
B. There must be dysfunctional behaviour or perceptual disturbances including at least one at least one of the following:
(1) Euphoria and disinhibition
(2) Anxiety or agitation
(3) Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
(4) Temporal slowing (a sense that time is passing very slowly, and/or the person is experiencing a rapid flow of ideas)
(5) Impaired judgement
(6) Impaired attention
(7) Impaired reaction time
(8) Auditory, visual or tactile illusions
(9) Hallucinations, with preserved orientation
(l0) depersonalization
(11) derealization
(12) Interference with personal functioning
increased appetite
dry mouth
conjunctival injection
tachycardia.”
[3] DSM IV also has similar but less complete information under the heading of Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder and refers the reader to a general description of “ Sunstance*Induced Psychotic Disorder”. That is the difference in the phenomenology of Cannabis Psychosis and other substance induced psychosis is not made, however this is now rather dated being 1994 when published.[4]
It can be seen from this that the range of symptoms is quite extensive and not confined to the core symptoms mentioned at the beginning.
CHRONIC SYMPTOMS OF CANNABIS PSYCHOSIS
Patients are left with the well-recognised and permanent symptoms of memory loss, apathy, loss of motivation and, paranoid ideation. These symptoms known as “ the Amotivational Syndrome” in the past are usually permanent.[5] If Cannabis using resumes then the acute symptoms redevelop. The chronic state can also be arrived at without a preceding psychotic episode. After Cannabis started to be widely used about 20 years ago, for permanent damage to occur it was felt by some that Cannabis had to be heavily used over at least three years [6]. However, there is accumulating evidence that smaller amount will do damage also and in animals “ deficits on tasks dependent on frontal lobe function have been reported in cannabis users” [7]. It is very difficult to conduct research in this area, as it is not acceptable to harm humans by doing trials with damaging substances such as Cannabis. However there is accumulating evidence of the psychological consequences of using Cannabis [8]. It is logical that to get the permanent “ Amotivational Syndrome” small amounts to damage have to accumulate incrementally. All this is in addition to the recognised danger of a recurrence of a pre-existing illness, such as Schizophrenia or Manic-depressive disorder. There are suggestions that Cannabis “ caused schizophrenia in young people and (or) enhanced the symptoms, especially in young people poorly able to cope with stress or in whom the antipsychotic therapy was unsuccessful”. [9] Caspari found “patients with previous cannabis abuse had significantly more rehospitalizations, tended to worse psychosocial functioning, and scored significantly higher on the psychopathological syndromes "thought disturbance" (BPRS) and "hostility" (AMDP). These results confirm the major impact of cannabis abuse on the long-term outcome of schizophrenic patients”.[10]P
All quotes are from the article/link directly above the quote.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
