Narcotic vulnerability amongst the mentally ill

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Narcotic Sensitivity Among Mental Illness


By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 26, 2009
Narcotics have an irreversible effect on the brains of people already suffering from mental illness, finds a Montreal researcher.

Dr. Stephane Potvin of the Universitie de Montreal discovered some 33 to 50 percent of psychiatric patients also suffer from drug addiction. His study suggests that drug consumption leads to the deterioration of the cerebral structures.

Moreover, research has shown that people suffering from mental illness, and more specifically schizophrenia, are more sensitive to the effects of drugs.

“They become dependent more quickly and they tend to abuse drugs more easily. It is evident that drug use can worsen the symptoms of mental disease,” says Dr. Potvin.

“The odds that a mental disorder manifests itself in an individual can increase if he or she consumes drugs.”

Potvin is also interested in the support that people suffering from mental illness and drug dependence receive.

Typically resources aren’t the same for both and detoxification centers have a very different approach than centers devoted to those suffering from mental disease.

To rectify this dilemma, Potvin calls for an integrated treatment approach for those suffering mental disease and drug abuse.



I suffer from BPD (Borderline) and find that the above is very symptomatic of my process of becoming addicted to painkillers. Since then, my latent predisposition for anxiety and emotional instability has just been exacerbated - this is a real shame as 2 years ago now I was on the road to recovery - top university prospects and the attendant career etc,now i'm just struggling to find work to earn a meagre wage... ahhh well. I've started to dabble with weed in an attempt to lessen withdrawal symptoms (I am struggling to use on alternate days with concurrent ULD naltrexone therapy to lower my tolerance - mixed results thus far, but positive overall) but it just adds an even more profound emotional dimension to the experience, it just amplifies the emotional trauma to an unutterably unbearable degree. Of course weed + mental illness is a bad combination and I won't be doing it much longer, but it just goes to show that we are more susceptible to the effects of narcotics including the negative ones. Has anyone found the same thing with drug use?

 

[panic in paradise]

i have schizoeffective bi polar, and during a 3 month psychotic break down full of mixed states - i had no desire or thought of using opioids, or alcohol. marijuana was very helpful for me, at bringing me up and out of that state for some moments, or gave me a third persons perspective on what was happening.

after 2-3 joints it started to become clear to me that i was in the midst of a schizo relapse, or that i had taken a med, and was having a horrific reaction. so very helpful, for me. ive been with other people who where full blown paranoid schizo, and they would escalate and react very strongly to the psychedelic properties, or attributes, i feel i was reacting to the CBD or THCV part of the plant, which is sedating, and slows things down a bit in a good way.

sure people with schizophrenia might be more prone to use in the earlier more cognitive stages of the disease, i mean give 'em a break. thats no life either way, but it seems to be expected while still able to have the capacity to gather.handle money, and score, then use. but as a child/teen young man or woman being intruded upon in ones mind in a most terrifying way is a lot to try an process for anyone.

i believe marijuana, and its derivatives have a large place in the future for schizophrenia, and bi polar. PTSD, anxiety.OCD/O's i feel should be approached with no drugs, or a long 1/2 life benzo for 2-3 months, while going to therapy and being engaged in healing themselves more by working through it, taking the steps needed at first so badly. if the trauma continued for more then a year, and benzos where still in play, marijuana would be a much greater choice, growing and taking pride in ones own medicine that honestly does help, is a great thing. a healthy obsession that breeds patience, the want to learn about nature and science biology, there is a lot out there in there.

but, there is a lot it seems to awaken in some people that is not good, usually paranoid types, or personality disorders. or people who have no diagnosis, and are fine other wise, they cant handle it - they have a dysphoric paranoid agoraphobic anxiety attack. ive seen it plenty of times!

 

[paranoid android]

A good point you made about cannabis there PIP. I know plenty of people without any mental illness at all who can't stand the stuff and get awful paranoid reactions from it. One person i know who i smoked some with became intensly paranoid and introverted on the stuff until he could no longer talk and had to go away from the rest of us and just sit by himself for a few hours.

I have bipolar disorder on the otherhand and anyone who knows me knows i get a rather favourable reaction to it . I can't really describe it but it does setlle my moods down and seems to stop manic and psychotic symptoms from happening or atleast brings me down to normal levels. It also helps the depression side of things better then anything on the market. I have known other people with bipolar disorder who have reported the same thing and one schizophrenic (i think he was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic) who said it made him feel better too.

I wouldnt tell anyone with a mental illness who does not already smoke the stuff to try it though given what ive seen people who are without mental illness react to it. I should also mention that i get good reactions from psychedelics even at high doses which is maybe a weird thing given that i sometimes get psychotic while sober. I havent gotten anything near a psychotic reaction even from huge doses of psilocybin or LSD.

Im also a opiate addict and alcoholic and ive used both rather unsuccessfully to medicate my condition. The latter was entirely my fault but the former not 100% anyways. But it was my fault that i was using opiate prescriptions to medicate my mental pain (which was every bit as real as my physical pain despite what some people think ) and make it through the day easier. I havent lied when ive said to close friends that if it wherent for drugs id have killed myself long ago because they kept me going (or in the same state) when nothing else did. But they made my life a fuck of alot harder in many ways as well. Suffering through the agony of chronic pain, with opiate withdrawals thrown in and your bipolar going crazy because of it is so not fun . Sitting up alone at the wee hours of the morning dopesick beyond words has got to be the loneliest thing on earth.