Steer Clear of Pot, If You Have Psychosis

Marijuana has, in recent times, been advertised as an alternative treatment for a wide variety of health problems, including in the domain of mental health. People who have ever had a psychotic episode should, however, be extremely cautious, research has uncovered. Here's why.

Because cannabis has been found to increase the risk of an episode of psychosis in regular users, researchers wanted to investigate whether pot smoking was associated with poor functional outcome for those who had already suffered from a psychotic break. After a detailed randomized-controlled study, a group of researchers, led by Dr. Gunnar Faber of Yulius Mental Health Institute in Dordrecht, in the Netherlands, found that continued use of marijuana after the onset of a first episode of psychosis is directly related to worse social outcomes in patients.

Scientists now believe that people who have suffered from psychosis at any time in the past should avoid using marijuana recreationally. While the effects of this study were slight, the findings suggest that social life and financial independence were affected negatively by the use and smoking of pot in the mental health patients studied. The study confirms what doctors have speculated for years.

The landmark study examined 124 people who participated in a clinical trial regarding long-term treatment with antipsychotic medication. These participants were prescribed the medication after a first time episode of psychosis. During the trial, the individuals  in question were asked about their use of cannabis. Around 20 percent of those studied continued to smoke pot throughout the two year evaluation period.

According to the article the researchers published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, around 50 percent of study participants achieved an eradication of symptoms, meaning, for practical purposes, that they recovered from their psychotic episodes. Pot smokers were just as likely as non-smokers to recover and reach “clinical recovery” — meaning that their symptoms subsides and they got back to their activities of daily living normally or close to it. However, the marijuana users were found to have an increased risk of social problems and scored lower on questionnaires that gauged financial independence and socialization.

Dr. Faber and associates believe that this could mean that continuing to use marijuana recreationally, or even in an attempt to self-medicate, has a detrimental effect on the social functioning of people who have suffered from psychosis, but it may vary from one user to another. These findings do not mean that pot-smokers are not socially capable, just that recreational marijuana use causes a risk in people with a known history of psychosis. Pot smoking keeps users from going out and decreases work ethic, making it a social impairing substance to begin with. People with mental health problems are susceptible to further impairment with the use of the illegal substance, the researchers reported.
 
Marijuana comes from the hemp plant known as “Cannabis sativa” and it is the most frequently used “illegal” drug in America, with around 4 percent of adults reporting smoking it. It is estimated that around 1% of adults abuse the substance and 1 in 300 have a full blown marijuana addiction. The active ingredient in the plant is THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol. This substance, THC, is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream through the lungs when the pot is smoked.

The medical effects of marijuana include rapid heart rate, increased rate of breathing, red eyes, increased blood pressure, dry mouth, slowed reaction time, and increased appetite. These  effects usually last around three or four hours. The main psychological effect of pot is the euphoria or “high” it brings the smoker. These also have a distorted sense of time, paranoia, short-term memory loss, anxiety, depression, and magical thinking.