Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype
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May 26, 2010
The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer madness,’ it generally goes unreported.Such is the case with a pair of just-published studies slated to appear in the journal Schizophrenia Research. The first study, conducted by a team of researchers at various New York state hospitals, the Yale University School of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Mental Health assessed whether there exists a causal association between cannabis use and the age of onset of psychosis in patients hospitalized for the first time for an episode of schizophrenia.
Despite previous media claims to the contrary, researchers concluded:
“Although the onset of cannabis use disorder preceded the onset of illness in most patients, our findings suggest that age at onset of psychosis was not associated with cannabis use disorders. Previous studies implicating cannabis use disorders in schizophrenia may need to more comprehensively assess the relationship between cannabis use disorders and schizophrenia, and take into account the additional variables that we found associated with cannabis use disorders.”A separate study slated for publication in the same journal assessed the cognitive skills of schizophrenic patients with a history of cannabis use compared to non-users. Authors reported that patients with a history of marijuana use “demonstrated significantly better performance on measures of processing speed, verbal fluency, and verbal learning and memory” compared to abstainers. Marijuana use was also associated with better overall GAF (Global Assessment of Functioning) scores compared to those of non-users.
Authors concluded: “The results of the present analysis suggest that (cannabis use) in patients with SZ (schizophrenia) is associated with better performance on measures of processing speed and verbal skills. These data are consistent with prior reports indicating that SZ patients with a history of CUD (cannabis use disorders) have less severe cognitive deficits than SZ patients without comorbid CUD. … The present findings also suggest that CUD in patients with SZ may not differentially affect the severity of illness as measured by clinical symptomatology.”
Both study’s findings are in line with previous (though virtually unreported) research indicating that marijuana is unlikely to instigate incidences of schizophrenia in the general population, that cannabis use among patients with the disease is associated with higher cognitive function, and that at least some schizophrenics find subjective relief from symptoms of the illness by using pot. Nonetheless, odds are the nobody from the mainstream media will be champing at the bit to report on them.
Bottom line: marijuana’s complex relationship with schizophrenia is far from understood, and likely won’t be for some time. But that doesn’t give the MSM a free pass to only promote one side of the story.
97 Responses to “Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype”
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I was diagnosed with a lot of incorrect diagnoses since I was 15. A dr finally diagnosed my illness as schizoeffective/bipolar. I smoke weed only on occasions of severe stress and it relieves my symptoms to the point that I don’t hallucinate or stay paranoid. My use is not excessive but it does help when it’s needed. When I was 15 and having all the symptoms is severe amounts, weed was the only thing that kept the voices from scaring me to the point of suicide.
I FREAKING KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been saying this for YEARS!!!! No one believed me, but I knew an official study would eventually be conducted that would prove my theory right!!! HA!
cannbis use DISORDER??? so now smoking pot is being labeled a disease? geniuses.
re: insanity
I submit The War On Drugs
Even though this is a new study, this is old news for those who know the difference between science and media B.S. (which is everyone reading this comment) Slowly but surely marijuana is more in the public eye not as a ‘demon weed’ but as just another way to relax after a day of work (or class in my case). I believe the more reports that come out revealing the FACTS about cannabis, the more people will come around to realizing that if there was an obvious link between schizophrenia and marijuana use, there would be a lot more people with said affliction walking around.
Here are a few more studies in our favor! Now where is the mainstream media?
If they cannot improve ratings or make money off of it, they are no where to be found!
Prohibitionists do not want to be confused with the facts; they’ve allready got their minds made up. Besides, they’ve got ready access to their drug of choice: rot gut ,booze, fire water, or whatever else you want to call that liver destroying, “wet brain” addictive, deadly toxin. Prohibitionists’ hypocrisy alone renders their position untenable.
Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for well over 5,000 years. Don’t you think there would have been a tie to cannabis and SZ a while before now even with the advanced science of today? Every herb used for medicinal purposes have been experimented with for thousands of years and when enough people died or got some disease they knew what was up… same goes for marijuana… in my eyes anyway.
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The Mainstream Media needs to be smarter on how they forcast the news. In Houston, we here propaganda at all ends.
Just the other day, our local ABC news anchor, Jessica Willey said “there was a new study out” (done in 2007) about cannabis causing lung cancer. The study was done by the New Zealand Institute. It clearly states in the study online, cannabis does not cause empazema. During the newscast, she interviewed a Dr. and he said that it does cause emphaszea and lung cancer. I know she had to do the research and she knew the answer but failed to correct him. It’s the media who is controlling alot of the controversy
Its all about the media and what they think they want us to hear.
You are wrong when you said: “But that doesn’t give the MSM a free pass to only promote one side of the story.” MSM does have a free pass. MSM does not care. They risk nothing by lying. They risk profits by telling the truth: their stock in munitions, construction & pharmaceuticals companies would devalue.
I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder 2 years ago and also only find relief from smoked marijuana. i had tried smoking pot in the past as a social thing in late teens and then quit for a few years. After learning my diagnoses i had gone through 3 doctors and countless medication cocktails that literally cause even more problems to surface. A friend of mine offered to smoke with me and relief from my hallucinations and anxiety was nearly instantaneous. i was able to think, able to process life for what it is, rather than be lost between reality and hallucination.
The audacity of the MSM to use SZ as yet another tool in the anti-marijuana law reform kit is beyond me.
After reading this article I became curious about the definition of “cannabis use disorder”. I’ve tried to look it up but all I’ve been able to come across is studies done in the treatment of it (oddly enough).
Does anybody have a link showing the medical definition of “cannabis use disorder”?
I was able to find a small piece in a WebMD article talking about the reclassifications of “substance abuse,” but thats all.
[...] 420 MAGAZINE Source: NORML Author: Paul Armentano Contact: NORML Copyright: 2010 NORML Website: Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype __________________ 420 Magazine News Team Creating Cannabis Awareness Since 1993 [...]
Yes folks, if you smoke cannabis the government has a legal stance of classification for pot smokers, in short it reads that it’s a disorder mentally but how many other issues are wrong with government, law, etc. The pot laws are put in place to keep you in a closet for as long as your a user. Government knows it’s wrong, their just keeping you down, control is what it’s all about and NOT being right, honest or correct. Now smoke your herb in the closet and be happy. Colorado’s citizens voted leaders into to office and now you can’t get busted in Colorado unless your really super stupid. The Tennessee Activist is baaaack!
I’ve known a lot of Schitzos . Gentle , passive , couteous , polite but a few shots of whiskey ( or other liquor )and they turn into aggressive , combative , obnoxious , mean fighting bastards .
Of course Alcoholic beverages are legal so we’ll concentrate on Cannabis consumers .
“cannabis use disorder”?????
WTF??
Is that anything like Nancy Reagan’s claim that any use is abuse just because it is illegal?
[...] community then i think i will see a doctor about a prescription for help with my symptoms.. http://blog.norml.org/2010/05/26/lat…am-media-hype/ Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype May 26th, 2010 [...]
I think this is a Republican ploy (they’re sore loosers) especially when marijuana is slowly becomming re-legalized.
Let’s stop them in their tracks …NOW.
NOW is the time to re-double our efforts, before public opinion sways.
To all of us who use pot for our reasons, especilly the baby boomers who proved to us that smoking won’t turn us crazy.
My belief and hope is that those who used pot in the past for recreational/medicinal use-will continue to promte it.
Kinda remember we’re all getting older and when I turn 60 years old, I’d rather have a joint (for joint pain ?) than morphine. Obama’s administratin won’t prosecute for marijuana. Let’s get this mommentum going before it’s get’s too late….Thanks for letting me vent a little. RSK
The big question is “why does increases in cannabis consumption, as seen in Western societies since the 1960′s, not correlate with changes in the frequency of schizophrenia?”
Now, some answers have been proposed. Some talk about a time lag, other about changes in diagnostics.
These beg the following questions:
1. If there is indeed a time lag why can it simultanaously be identified, yet not be quantified.
2. If indeed diagnostics changes are the cause, how come anyone got the idea in the first place to blame cannabis for this.
And a third thing, I guess, is how come specifically cannabis is targeted as producing a kind of “life-time intoxication” while no one in their right mind would EVER claim that getting drunk leads to permanent psycho-moter deficiencies, delusions and raised aggression levels? To me it’s as clear as why we used to view blacks and whites as totally different.
Drugs (that are not alcohol) are good enemies. They don’t ever go away. They are used by a minority of people. Lend themselves to projection, fear and xenophobia.
I’ve suffered from the big S all my life.I was on a whack of drugs(legal for some reason)which made things completely worse.It wasn’t until I used cannabis products that my symptoms pretty much went away.I do however get mentally sick when I don’t get my proper medicine.CANNABIS
[...] Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype [...]
Ive smoked for years, n i can quit when needed to pass that stupid ass piss test,which in my opinion is invasion of privacy, but its funny how i try to quit smoking cigs n i cant, as far as being skit-so ,that’s just more bullshit cuz there’s nothing wrong with me, and I’m sure anyone else that smokes cannabis isn’t skit-so either.Again PURE BULLSHIT we are the experience cannabis users i think we all know if it does or if it doesn’t cause skit so.Media needs help pulling their head outta their ass.
Some good news..
So long Souder
http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/vacancies_pr.html?pr=house&vid=33
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/18/AR2010051803059.html
As a matter of fact my dad’s a truck driver an he’s in Denver right now, an i asked him is it total chaos there since its legal ? Are there people driving on it getting in accidents , are there people walking around smoking it? He said no, an i told him yea i kinda figured that. There again nothing will change only the quality n the tax.These people that think omg its legal people r gonna be driving on it, smoking it freely in public NO that’s NOT gonna change.Here’s another does Dr’s drink a beer b4 they do surgery proly proly not , does airline pilot’s fly drunk Yep there’s been a few but on very rare occasion cuz i dont hear about it everyday. Im from Iowa an our Norml director is Carl Olsen and i’d like to have a good convo with him maybe give some ideas,but he’s proly too busy helping with our fight here in Iowa.
Probably the biggest ‘propaganda wash’ job of all this is that ‘schizophrenia’ is probably the most widely-used term in all of medicine. 99% of people, when hearing the word ‘schizophrenia’ think it means ‘split-personality,’ when nothing could be further from the truth. I thought the same, before I did a tiny little bit of research. Hell, tinnitus (theh perpetual/temporary ringing one ‘hears’ when one is subjected to too-loud music for too long; who hasn’t been subjected to blasting music? Who hasn’t gone to a concert, or even a bar, where it’s a well known fact that bars blare loud music because it causes people to talk less and drink more.)
Schizophrenia simply means ‘hearing “sounds” that are projected from the mind rather than from anything in the real world. (Even dictionary.com has a biased opinion, claiming it’s a ‘severe mental disorder.’)
Even before my traumatic brain injury (caused by alcohol, of course) I remember hearing series of clicks, or squeals, that I immediately recognized as something that was just being projected by my own mind and was not coming from some outside source. It can be caused by tiredness, or even contrarily awake-ness. Try laying down and closing your eyes and attempting to go to sleep when you’re fully awake, especially if you’ve had a few cans of soda/carbonated beverage with caffeine.
I call Bullshyt. “Skitsofrenia” is an inhertint disease. It is not cause by cannabis. It is passed down through family gene’s.
I have a 26 yr old son with SZ. We are tying to find MJ with the lowest CBD content. It is the THC that can cause the hallucinations. It is a new strain that has come out of the Oakland Clinic. We have to grow it at home in order to be able to try this for my son. Hope we can get hold of some to try. We have tried most of the anti-psychotics and other meds. Awful side effects and not much relief for anxiety or psychosis. When he almost over doesed, trying to find stress relief on anti anxiety meds, I listed to my other sons, who suggested we do the research ourselves with MJ. I am desperate to find something to help my son. We are in Ca. Hopefully we will have some good news when we are able to find the low CBD strains. I would appreciate any info on how others with SZ have found help with MJ. A desperate Mom who has never even tried this herself, believe it or not!!
Thank you!!
Sorry for the typos above. And I meant, when we can find the strains HIGH in CBD. We can’t afford to buy it at this point. So have to grow it and wait……..Social Security disability pay does not cover much.
stoner’s world is much different from the hammerin agro consumin redneckin …..
situations often get WEIRD at the entwining intersection.
re: CUD (cannabis use disorder). Another example of the refusal to admit the distinction between use and abuse. To the prohibitionist, all use is abuse. It’s hard to believe they actual believe their own BS, but if they do,I think there are millions of cannabis consumers who would be happy to tell them they are wrong.
everyone just need to chill if u like it keep smoking, if u dnot who cares thats what makes us free!!!!
i feel marijuana helps with schizo episodes and sometimes it makes it worse…very true…the reasons for schizofrenia and smoking are intertwined and complex and cannot be seen in black and white…also it is the untrained mind and not understanding the mind which makes schizophrenia worse….alcohol does too…it has to do with depression…acticities that can allow depression to grow like excessive tv or computer can bring on episodes if…if the mind is just forgotten about and “covered up”…meditation can help it can make it worse…its all the intention…ive found that not worrying about myself as much has been one of the benifits of this disease and it has made me more selfless and able to acomplish more than i use too….it can be a tool if you are not afraid of it…dont fear going crazy or losing your mind…attachment causes all suffering…Love and bliss for the entire universe!
this is all they do to fuck with are heads
FUCK THE MEDIA!!!
get on youtube ….. put, grass the history of marijuana
and let me know what ya think k
Since when does anyone really believe what they read or hear from the MAIN STREAM MEDIA? Bottom line is if you don’t investigate issues yourself, your just another don’t give a care citizen. Main Stream Media just wants better ratings and get you to tune in and their not liable to date for their content or they’d get it right every time. Getting to the real truth in issues/facts takes more investigative work than the average reader/viewer cares to invest with their time. In short, Americans on average are gullible idiots, as the English population explains. Go ahead, ask your fellow Englishmen what they truly think of Americans, they’ll tell you. IDIOTS! That’s embarrassing but true on average or weed would be legal a long, long, time ago. Don’t believe anything till you do your homework on any issue or better yet turn that damn TV off and stop buying newspapers!
What a load of crap on sz.from the republican(conservative) mainstream. My mother AND brother both have sz. I do not. I`ve smoked for 30 yrs. They never have. I`m healthy, they`re not. Wouldn`t I be pretty pre-disposed to that disease if all that bs WAS true? I`d certainly have it by now. I challenge anyone with a computer to google “medical cannabis” and do the research. Then let`s talk. Mainstream is still brainwashed from “Reefer madness” type hysteria thanks to William Randolph Hearst and Dupont.
I was misdiagnosed with the illness schizophrenia/bipolar on several occasions, most times forcing me on horrible medications whereas I endured a tremendous amount of suffering.
At first I didn’t really think about the medical negligence. After some very disturbing circumstances, I set out to prove them wrong which took several trips to the asylum to do so, including risking lock-up in refusing to continue taking their medications. This is all documented.
The only thing that helped me in my recovery was marijuana, I promise. For the most part of the last two years, to avoid risk of being jailed, I have used opiates to manage my physical pain & emotional distress brought on – but not limited to – by a disease named ‘multifocal motor neuropathy’…
Please be pro-active in your healthcare & diagnosis no matter what the cost… a mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially when it’s your own!
Support AZ’s ‘Medical Marijuana Initiative’ November 2nd, 2010
Thanks again – NORML – for posting this information!
ALSO — HELP END PROHIBITION FOR A BETTER WORLD
HJMorales
Phx, AZ
HA HA DISEASE!!
THEY JUST DONT KNOW HOW TO LABEL IT ANYMORE…
SO CANNABIS A DISEASE THE HELPS DIESEAS?
GREAT CHOICE OF WORDS I MUST SAY… NOT!!
marijuana could not cause a disease unless it was alter it is just a herb that will never kill or make someone addicted, i guarantee prohibitionist use one of the follows caffeine, tobacco , alcohol which is far worst then marijuana
How did things get so ass backwards?
You need to do a story on the ways in which hemp can be used as oil to power the world. It is a renewable resource and it is the right time to bring the subject up in response to the Gulf Coast oil spill.
The time has come.
Just remembering from past Psych classes that Schizophreneia is the result of an abnormality in the structure of the brain itself, and not the result of any external influences. So the claims that marijuana causes the disease is a misnomer. Perhaps marijuana use can exacerbate or mitigate the symptoms of the disease, not cause it.
TO: #18 and the rest of you that are slow to learn that marijuana use is a mental disorder in the psych business.
Cute girl, SANDY, explain psychological disorder #292.89, at:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3oiwv_smoking-marijuana-mental-disorder-p_school.
Copy and paste into your browser the above link and hear it for yourself. They couldn’t have hired a sexier babe to explain this one. It’s a short video.
Thank you for posting this. Schizophrenia seems to run in my family. When I first started toking I hadn’t heard about the “connection”. Once I had, I figured the damage was already done lol
this is a huge relief to me.
Off to spread the word.
in miami sucks trying to get weed i wish the laws pass down here “the change” lol
I never smoked pot in junior high because I was convinced it would shrivel my incipient manhood. This was the 1980s, and those stark this-is-your-brain-on-drugs ads already had me vaguely worried about memory loss and psychosis. But when other boys said pot might affect our southern regions, I was truly terrified. I didn’t smoke a joint for the first time until I was 21.
By 12th grade, about half of young Americans have tried marijuana, which put me in the geeky other half. I used to think this was a good thing, since I never developed a taste for pot and avoided becoming dependent. But as the medical-marijuana movement flowered and weed’s p.r. improved, I often wondered if I shouldn’t have relished it as a kid, before I had a personal trainer to tsk-tsk my every vice. Shrinking testicles? Mushy brains? I came to see these as grotesqueries invented by antidrug propagandists.
It turns out that the study of marijuana’s health effects is at once more complex and less advanced than you might imagine. “Interpretations [of marijuana research] may tell more about [one's] own biases than the data,” writes Mitch Earleywine in Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, published in August by Oxford. For example: “Prohibitionists might mention that THC [delta-9 tetra-hydrocannabinol, the smile-producing chemical in pot] often appears in the blood of people in auto accidents. Yet they might omit the fact that most of these people also drank alcohol. Antiprohibitionists might cite a large study that showed no sign of memory problems in chronic marijuana smokers. Yet they might not mention that the tests were so easy that even a demented person could perform them.”
look up real info
The science of marijuana–especially its potential medical uses–is malleable because it’s so young and so contradictory. Although preliminary data are promising, scientists haven’t definitively shown that the drug can safely treat nausea or pain or anything, really. Some experts claim the U.S. government has sabotaged medical-marijuana research, and there is evidence to support them. Even so, in the past few years scientists have made rapid advances in their basic understanding of how Cannabis sativa works. By 1993, researchers had found the body’s two known receptors for cannabinoids, the psychoactive chemicals in the plant (THC is the main one, but there are at least 65 others). Since then, there has been important new work in several fields that users, potential users and former users should know about–and that voters should take into account before deciding whether to legalize pot.
So much new research has appeared that in November the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the National Institute on Drug Abuse will publish a 100-page supplement devoted entirely to marijuana. The Journal gave Time an advance look; it’s a comprehensive review that will annoy both sides in the drug war. You won’t find clear evidence that pot is good or evil, but the research sheds light on some of the most important questions surrounding the drug