Here’s a study which looks at genetic predisposition for schizophrenia as well as cannabis use and finds an overlap. Long story short this could possibly mean Schizophrenics are simply predisposed to cannabis use instead of cannabis use being a causative factor. It should be noted that this still does not rule causation completely, it could be bi-directional.
Another good article..
The association between cannabis use and psychosis has long been recognized. Recent advances in knowledge about cannabinoid receptor function have renewed interest in this association. Converging lines of evidence suggest that cannabinoids can produce a full range of transient schizophrenia-like...
link.springer.com
“However, only a very small proportion of the general population exposed to cannabinoids develop a psychotic illness. It is likely that cannabis exposure is a “component cause” that interacts with other factors to “cause” schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder, but is neither necessary nor sufficient to do so alone.”
It seems based on these two articles schizophrenia MAY possibly be exacerbated in individuals with genetic predisposition by cannabis. Pretty much what people have been saying. Hopefully as medical science progresses it’ll get easier to warn patients about these possible complications.
Next with depression we see increased rates with heavy/problematic usage but nothing associated with less infrequent use in this study.
Here’s a more recent study stating..
“however, strong evidence points to the inverse association; i.e. that depression may lead to the onset or increase in cannabis use frequency.”
There is a growing body of evidence pointing to the co-occurrence of cannabis use and depression. There is also some evidence that the use of cannabis may lead to the onset of depression; however, strong evidence points to the inverse association; i.e. that...
link.springer.com
Here’s one on depression and anxiety..
Whether or not cannabis use may increase the risk for depression and/or anxiety is not clear. For one thing, it has not been possible to draw a defini…
www.sciencedirect.com
“We found no longitudinal associations between cannabis use and incidence of depression/anxiety, or between depression/anxiety and later cannabis use onset.”
The more we look the more we start to see a pattern of asking ourselves what came first, chicken or the egg? In this case we keep seeing research showing folks with mental health disorders having a predisposition for substance use, not the other way around. Here’s a good one to that effect…
“Compared to abstainers, the risk of AMD (anxiety and mental disorders) was significantly greater for infrequent cannabis users (
OR = 1.43) and heavy cannabis users (
OR = 2.04) but not for those in between.”
So how is it that infrequent users and heavy users had increased risk but those in between did not? This completely shits all over and dose response narrative.
-GC