Schizophrenia, ecstasy, and cannabis....

[Sandy-Wroe]

Every year a number of young people will develop serious mental illnesses, including schizophrenia. Is there any evidence to suggest that the use of drugs like, cannabis or ecstasy, has had an effect on the numbers of young people with mental health problems.
If there is a link, then the numbers should be higher now than in the 1950's and 1960's when drug use was lower.

[daffy654]

I have long held the belief that anyone who smokes cannabis and then develops a mental illness would have developed that illness without ever smoking anything.

As far as I know there is no link between the use of ecstasy and mental illness.

The use of amphetamine can cause a condition called amphetamine psychosis but this is usually short lived and wears off after the drug has left the system.

[Sqad]

The jury is still out on the relationship between Cannabis and Ecstasy use predisposing to the development of mental disorders including Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorders.

Research is still ongoing.

I do not know the answer to your question.

On balance, I would agree in part, to daffy's post.

[jake-the-peg]

There is a risk of viewing things like this as directly causal

You do something you get an effect.

That is often over simplistic.

I think the key word, in sqad's reply is predisposition.

Pretty much all of us are walking around with predispositions to one sort of physical or mental disorder. We may go our whole lives and not develop it, or we might be exposed to some environmental factor like a drug, stress, polution a hormone change or any one or combination of thousands of possibilities and develop the condition.

What I'm getting at is that for some people cannabis may not increase their risk of developing mental disorders but for others it may increase it greatly.

Of course you don't know if you're in the risk catagory or not and when you're determining public policy you have to look at the population as a whole.

You also cannot reliably draw conclusions from the earlier decades in this way because there are so many other environmental differences between then and now - any number of which may have some degree of an effect

It is also one of those subjects where it's really hard to get a good understanding of the research because there ae so many apparently conflicting studies.

[Sqad]

jake
"
It is also one of those subjects where it's really hard to get a good understanding of the research because there ae so many apparently conflicting studies."

Exactly.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes Personally I suspect the jury will always be out on this one!

[Sqad]

jake...fear not, the "boys" will sort it....inshalla.

[jno]

the number of people with peanut allergies seems to be a lot higher than in the 1950s - that doesn't mean there's a link to drug use. As you say, actual evidence of a link is needed, the numbers alone won't tell you anything.

[jake-the-peg]

The other thing to bear in mind is the type.

There are two particularly interesting compounds in cannabis THC and CBD.

THC is the one most associated with Schizophrenia, the ratio of THC to CBD seems as if it may be important.

In practice this means that the form known as skunk may be more risky - some people have even suggested that this should be broken out and considered as a seperate drug to cannabis

[Seadragon]

I personally think that there is an undiscovered link. There was an article yesterday suggesting a link between the horse tranquiliser (kera something) and memory loss. Maybe or maybe not schizophrenia but as Jake says some people have a predisposition which could be activated by various influences.

[Sqad]

Seadragon.......ketamine?

[Seadragon]

Yeh that's it Sqad. You see I'm clean - don't dabble in drugs. Can't risk being worse than I already am!

[daffy654]

Ketamine is used in hospitals and by the Air Ambulance staff (H.E.M.S) to sedate patients,it isn't just a club drug seadragon.
It is used because it provides sedation with the added benefit that the patient has no recollection of the treatment they recieve whilst under it's effects....perfect for dislocation injuries and traumatic fractures where the bones have to be realigned :-)

[Seadragon]

Ok thanks I didn't know that Daffy. I shall bear that in mind if I ever - God forbid - have a fracture or nasty dislocation. (That i've taken a club drug!)