marijuana encourages schizophrenia?

[barbie]

my brother smoked for about 3 years and when he came back from university, he was really off (as in, not like the same old brother he used to be). at first, i dismissed it as experience change but as time went by, it occured to my family that there was something wrong.

anyway, long story short, we convinced him to go see a psychiatrist and it turns out that he's got schizophrenia!!!

so smoking in the long term (everyday) can cause that, yes? i've spoken to a friend (who's a qualified psychiatrist) and she said that weed can lead to schizo.

or is there some dispute against that argument at all?

[Tootsie ~ blue]

I'm not quite sure if they have completely linked skizophrenia to long term smoking, although certain connections have been made but the clearness of these connections is unknown.
Another thing thats been said about marijuana and skizophrenia is that its possible that weed just helps to bring out skizophrenic tendencies, that were already there before hand.
However one of the problems with this study is that they are unsure if there is an actual link between MJ and becoming skizo..or if people who suffer from Skizophrenia are just more likley to smoke weed then people who dont have skizophrenia, therefore making it APPEAR that weed causes skizophrenia
Its all pretty complicated stuff in my opinion, but I really wouldn't say that weed causes skizophrenia, as they havent been able to make a strong enough connection.

[heythere]

highly doubt it but possible, plus its not like your going to be a raging schizo he probably is a catatonic of some sort, he should see another shrink to get another opinion cause it sounds like bullshit to me

[foofeenono]

those things are usually not related to just one thing, he must have done something other than weed that you can put the blame on, weed doesnt really do that unless he had it and the weed made it worse

[emrandel]

Originally Posted by barbie

my brother smoked for about 3 years and when he came back from university, he was really off (as in, not like the same old brother he used to be). at first, i dismissed it as experience change but as time went by, it occured to my family that there was something wrong.

anyway, long story short, we convinced him to go see a psychiatrist and it turns out that he's got schizophrenia!!!

so smoking in the long term (everyday) can cause that, yes? i've spoken to a friend (who's a qualified psychiatrist) and she said that weed can lead to schizo.

or is there some dispute against that argument at all?

It's TOTAL and COMPLETE fucking bullshit. And it pisses me off.

What's more terrifying that believing that if you do a certain drug you go crazy? Nothing really. Death maybe. But it's pretty much impossible for the government to convince everyone that weed will kill you. But as it's obviously been proven here even the stoniest stoned stoner might go as far as believing that weed COULD make you go crazy. But it can't.

If you're brother is indeed skitzo (unlikely) then he will be/would have been irregardless of his weed intake.

I'm so sick of hearing this bullshit. The worst part is that it's not your fault... it's the media and the governments fault for spreading lies. You're just the victim, and for that... I am sorry.

[heythere]

they used to think weed would cause people to go schizo and turn into drug addicts and violent psycho but we all know the truth, so heybelieve if you want but be prepared to be called a dumb ass

[growgoat27]

I went to a shrink when I broke up with my girlfriend. It was bad. She said it was never real. Anyway I told the doc. this and that I smoked weed. The first thing he told me was that weed brings forth schizo. Well I went to another doc. She said the brain is so complex that no one really knows exactly what the cause is. Docs only know the chemical composition of the ailment.

I knew what was real.

Fact is, I did research, that schizo is mainly genetic. Other factors such as stress may bring forth this disease. About the wiring of crossed nuerons in your brain. Preferrably in the prefrontal lobe. That is why alzhiemers is closely related to it.
Check this out.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/hypo.php

What I am saying is that the doctor may not be right. American medicine is only trying to make as much money as possible to fund research and pay salaries. They will prescribe anything. Look through Chinese medicine for help. I know several different herbs to calm down the brain and cure"insanity".

[RobHecht]

bullshit, weed doesn't bring forth skitzo but i've heard that lsd can if you have it running in your family, which is why i would never do acid cuz my aunt is a skitzo.

[toastybiz]

Does weed cause schizo? Yes, most definitely.

No it doesn't.

It certainly does.

No way.

Who said that?


OK, kidding aside. Tootsie and GrowGoat are on the right path. Many studies have shown a correlation, meaning a relationship between the two -- tendencies to pot smoking and tendencies to schizo have a statistical link, but there is nothing about that link that has shown causality. In other words, no proof that one "causes" the other. Posting on this forum is higly correlated to pot smoking, but posting here doesn't cause pot smoking. Same idea.

Best scientific understanding of schizophrenia today is that it has a large genetic component, but also that it often is a developmental coping mechanism gone awry for dealing with trauma, particularly childhood trauma. All in all it is too complicated to say that science really understands a whole lot about it yet.

[blueberry_boi]

after harsh delibaration me and my split personality have decided no it doesnt

[streetpharmacy]

it probably doesnt help,though.

[meatwad]

Does smoking weed encourage schizophrenia? I wouldn't know. I started smoking weed after I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

So you would probably think that after I started smoking weed my condition would worsen, but it hasn't. I am also on medication for my schizophrenia and depression. One thing I have noticed since I started smoking was that something in the weed pretty much counteracts the side affects I would get from my medication. It also helps with my depression that I experience.

I can honestly say that in my case smoking weed helps me deal with things better.

Oh and blueberry_boi and toastybiz what you are thinking about is multiple personality disorder not schizophrenia. I dont have an inner Hank(Me, Myself, and Irene) conspiring against me.

[toastybiz]

MPD is an extreme form of schizo. Very famous but very rare. Generally schizo is characterized by altering perceptions of reality to fit the world that makes sense, rather than change the way the world is viewed based on new realities. Most patients don't blur the reality/internal line about everything, and it is only disabling in a small percentage of cases.

To Tootsie's point, maybe there is something about schizo that would make you more inclined to smoke pot rather than the other way around. Interesting that you find it helps, more anecdotal evidence of why there may be a link.

[chronictoker]

interesting topic for sure...this just seems to come up probably because it's just another thing that the anti pot orgs can use to spread lies about weed. Yes it does appear that a lot of people that smoke pot do have or develop schiztophrenia, but i think those people are just more likely to smoke pot because they think more outside the norm so they are more likely to use drugs and probably just take more risks in general jmo on the matter i see no real link between the two though you can't just fucking connect the dots and that's it there's no scientific proof that can show the true relationship between weed and psychosis it's not going to happen all we will ever be able to prove is a correlation between the two and that's it it seems.

[imptress]

Reefer Madness, anyone?