Europe wondered how frivolous the attitude to the free use of marijuana would be a fair hobby.
According to a new study by scientists from Europe and America , people who use cannabis daily can be at increased risk of developing psychosis .
The study analyzed information on more than 1,200 people not suffering from psychosis in 10 European cities and one city in Brazil, and compared them with data from 900 people living in the same cities but who were diagnosed with psychosis for the first time. (Psychosis means that a person experiences a loss of connection with reality).
The researchers found that people who used marijuana daily were three times more likely to have a diagnosis of psychosis, compared with people who reported that they had never used a drug. Moreover, those who daily consumed marijuana daily, were five times more likely to get a diagnosis of psychosis of the first episode, compared with those who have never tried it.
This study is the first and there is an assumption that the scale of cannabis use in this region may contribute to the growth of psychosis among the population. For example, in Amsterdam, where cannabis is widely distributed with high activity.
Those who used cannabis daily with high activity had a nine times higher risk of developing psychosis than those who didn’t use marijuana (in the US).
Highly active marijuana is also more common today than a few decades ago.
“Since the legal status of cannabis is changing in many countries and states, and since we are considering the therapeutic properties of some cannabis that are vital to public health, it is also important to take into account the potentially adverse effects associated with the daily use of cannabis, especially highly active varieties” - says lead author of the study, Dr. Martha Di Forti, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurobiology, King's College, London.
However, it is important to note that the study found only an association and there can be no evidence that the use of marijuana actually causes psychosis. The study was published March 19 in The Lancet Psychiatry .
Marijuana and psychosis
Previous studies have already shown a link between marijuana use and an increased risk of developing psychosis. But these studies could not determine how this relationship affected the level of psychosis among the general population. In a new study, it was found that about 30 percent of patients with psychosis reported daily use of marijuana, compared with just 7 percent of controls (people without psychosis); and 37 percent of patients reported using high-level marijuana, compared with 19 percent of controls.
The study showed the level of cannabis use among controls at a given location was related to the level of psychosis at that location. So, the more highly-active marijuana will be consumed, the higher the level of psychosis will be. Researchers estimate that about one in five new cases (20 percent) of psychosis in 11 cities of the study may be associated with the daily use of marijuana; and one in 10 new cases of psychosis (12 percent) may be associated with the use of highly active marijuana.
Further research
The new study "is consistent with many studies conducted over the past few years and showing the link between cannabis use ... and the onset of psychotic illness," said Dr. David Roen, chairman of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who was not associated with this study. “It is becoming increasingly clear that this is a risk factor for the onset of psychosis,” Roan said in an interview with Live Science.
However, a new study cannot rule out “reverse causality,” that is, it may happen that people with psychosis use marijuana more often, according to a commentary on Suzanne Gage's article from the Faculty of Psychological Sciences, Liverpool University.
Although people who were diagnosed with the first episode of psychosis were included in the study, they may have experienced less serious symptoms before their diagnosis. Future research should be aimed at identifying people whose use of marijuana may expose them to a particularly high risk of psychosis.
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