Maybe Frank won't be so bad off after all...

We’ve heard so many studies predicting that cannabis use leads to or exacerbates psychoses.  This study out of South Africa appears to predict just the opposite – that cannabis use may shorten and decrease episodes of psychoses!

Department of Psychiatry, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Cannabis use/abuse is a common co-morbid problem in patients experiencing a first episode of psychotic illness (FEP). The relationship between the clinical presentation of FEP and cannabis abuse is complex and warrants further investigation, especially within the South African context.

METHOD: We tested associations between recent/current cannabis use and duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), age of onset (AO), PANSS-rated (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) positive, negative and general psychopathology symptoms and depressive symptoms (Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia) in a sample of 54 patients with FEP.

RESULTS: Mean DUP was 34.4 weeks, while mean AO was 24.7 years. Co-morbid cannabis use occurred in 35% of the sample and was significantly associated with shorter DUP (Mann-Whitney U, p=0.026). While not significant, there was also a trend association between cannabis use and lower negative symptoms (Mann-Whitney U, p=0.051).

CONCLUSION: Current/recent cannabis use was associated with clinical features of psychosis onset that previously have been associated with better outcome. Medium and long-term outcome for cannabis users however, is likely to depend on whether or not cannabis use is ongoing.

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It’s Cannabis Science time!  You know all those studies Dr. Earleywine and I talked about that purported a small segment of the adolescent population vulnerable to schizophrenia would suffer from a “cannabis induced psychosis”?  Well, a new study is out showing that the entire concept of “cannabis induced psychosis” may be bunk and what’s really happening is that schizophrenics who would have suffered a psychotic episode anyway happen to have one while smoking cannabis.  Rather than triggering mental illness, bad reactions to cannabis may instead be warning signs of mental illness.  Dr. Earleywine joins us to look deeper into this revolutionary finding.

Then we go north of the border to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to visit with one of its newly-elected city councillors, Philippe Lucas!  Lucas, in addition to being an advocate for the homeless other social causes, works with the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (thevics.com) helping medical cannabis patients.