"Genes that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia may also increase the likelihood of using cannabis, according to a new study. Previous studies have identified a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, but it has remained unclear whether this association is due to cannabis directly increasing the risk of the disorder. The new results suggest that part of this association is due to common genes." \n--King's College London, June 24, 2014 \nFull article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140624093320.htm \nWhat do you think about this? It seems highly plausible, as cannabis can be a very intense cerebral experience. My first thoughts were perhaps there are genes found in schizophrenics that facilitate the use of something like cannabis as a coping mechanism, sort of a natural self-defense. However: \n"The new study included 2,082 healthy individuals of whom 1,011 had used cannabis. Each individual's 'genetic risk profile' was measured -- that is, the number of genes related to schizophrenia each individual carried. The researchers found that people genetically pre-disposed to schizophrenia were more likely to use cannabis, and use it in greater quantities than those who did not possess schizophrenia risk genes." \nIt seems as if the experience of the two can at times be highly similar, and many speculate use of large quantities of cannabis may also facilitate an early onset of schizophrenia in predisposed individuals. Thoughts?
Honestly I don't put much faith in these types of studies When studying humans, it is impossible to create a truely controlled environment without violating rights. There are also rarely studies backing up the origional. -yuri
THC can worsen psychosis but marijuana compounds (CBD) can treat schizophrenia better than popular prescription drugs. http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/30/marijuana-compound-treats-schizophrenia-with-few-side-effects-clinical-trial/
So you've basically just annihilated the entire field of psychology and sociology? Sure, it's difficult to obtain a truly objective and controlled environment, but that does not mean meticulous and/or legitimate studies should be entirely discredited. The question that immediately comes to mind is: how do these two compounds interact? If you have something that worsens psychosis and potentially aggravates latent mental disorders and you mix it with CBDs that effectively treat mental disorders... what the hell goes on from there?
THC and CBD are two separate ingredients within the cannabis plant and they serve two different functions. When people get CBDs for medical treatment sometimes it doesn't include any THC.
I was referring specifically to ingesting cannabis containing both compounds, for example smoking a strain that contains high levels of both.
You would probably have to have 2 strains. I think the amount of each other is kind of like a ratio. The more THC, the less CBD. The more CBD, the less THC.. but I could be wrong. THC isn't good for schizophrenics, but we also need to look at what they're considering schizophrenic. There are positive and negative symptoms. The positive ones are things like visual and audio delusions that seem completely real.. and the negative symptoms are emotional issues. They call them negative because there are countless other diseases and conditions that can bring about the negative symptoms, doesn't always mean schizophrenia. I've been seeing more n more people who only refer to the negative symptoms and call it schizophrenia.. when in reality, its probably caused by something else. My theory of why schizophrenia and THC don't mix is because THC prevents your neurons from resetting after use. Every time a neuron fires, it has a break time. THC prevents that break time, that's why when you start thinking bout something, those neurons for that train of thought basically have their throttle stuck. So you stay on that thought train and are so in depth with it, it feels like an epiphany. Thing is, that process would be happening on a subconscious level too. So if you're a schizo and your schizo neurons are firing, they're going to get stuck firing.. making your condition worse. My mom is a schizophrenic, both positive and negative. I only have the negative symptoms, so I really don't consider myself schizophrenic as I am pretty sure my issues are a combination of many other factors. I do love smoking weed.. and cigarettes. For some reason, tobacco is to schizophrenics like light is to moths. So I have no doubt I got some schizo genes from my mom. It's like I got my body from my dad and my brain from my mom.
Interesting stuff, good thread. My big fat uneducated guess is that cannabis won't help or hurt schizophrenics too much. I have known many, have watched them medicate; some seemed to improve, some seemed no different, a few perhaps seemed a bit worse. What is also interesting is that when a certain unmentionable substance was first synthesized, shrinks thought its effects mimmicked psychosis and schizophrenia. Well, then the hippies got ahold of it, and they thought it was just a blast. Must be a fine line between being very crazy and being very happy.
Your theory makes sense. Have you ever been in a thought loop? It's where you can't stop thinking about a specific thought and the thought just repeats and repeats. Usually one word. It's not as common with weed but is much more common with an unmentionable fungi. It sounds like the neurons not being able to take a break would be a logical reason for thought loop. Actually the neurons not taking a break explains many things while on psychedelics. Have you ever noticed the similarities with people on any psychedelic and a person with schizophrenia? They act a lot like each other. As for the op, I don't know how weed would affect a schizophrenic. In the right state of mind it could produce a very great high but i feel that it could backfire easily. Also wouldn't recommend schizophrenics using psychedelics. If their neurons are already haywire I'm sure a psychedelic would kick it into hyperdrive.
I'm sure there's a different process with neurons and unmentionables versus neurons and THC. I mean different drugs can bind to the same spots, but what causes a neuron to take a break is a cannabinoid our body produces. THC, being a cannabinoid, can take its place and bind there. But yeah, schizophrenia has a lot of similarities to psychedelics. That's going to be related to a lot of the positive symptoms of it all. Tripping and seeing/hearing things that aren't there while not being able to tell the difference.. but at the same time, I also see a lot of similarities between schizophrenia and religious belief.. lol Hell, one time I was on an unmentionable that isn't usually known to be a psychedelic.. but I also took a bunch of Tagamet HB and smoked a ton of weed. Any white surface I would look at, I could see blue Sanskrit. Schizophrenia is mainly just a switch, or numerous switches, in the brain that get flipped or stuck in the wrong kind of way.. like every aspect of the brain, its a pretty broad spectrum.
Yup there's something about nicotine that helps relieve their symptoms, but it doesn't last very long. Scientists are trying to synthesize a medication something like nicotine, but hope to make it last longer, and really tap into what it does for schizophrenics. There's a lot of amazing scientific research going into this mental disorder
The skitzophrenia and weed debate is dumb IMO. The symptoms of skitzophrenia are fueled by bad bacteria and fungus living in the digestive tract. Remove the bad micro flora in the gut and you can reverse the disease. But modern medicine doesn't think like that. They would just rather give you meds, it's easier that way. Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
Thanks! I am seeing a parallel emerging here, good call. The line is indeed very fine. It's not necessarily a debate, I'm simply offering information and sharing perceptions of that information. Curiosity being the foremost motive here, second only to encourage others to express their ideas.
Learnt in my pharmacology class that there is an increas risk with cannabis use and is dose dependent, as heavy users are 6 times more likely while 2 times more likely for regular users and is also associated with the strains with a high THC:cbd ratio. This is still all correlation. It's posible that people with shizophrenia use weed to self-medicate or being prediposed to shizophrenia somehow makes you more curious to drug taking in the first place. One important note is that THC is a partial CB-1 agonist while synthetic weed is a full agonist while there is no study i'm aware of that compares it to weed , but it's likely safe to say that it causes more acute shizo symptoms than weed.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23881886 My guess is that it activates parts of the cannabinoid sytem THC does not and CBD probably plays a role in counteracting some effects that may lead to psychosis or shizophrenia.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141029133448.htm Another piece of a very large and complex puzzle..