May 1, 2019 – Psychosis and Cannabis

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Anchor lead: Are people who use cannabis at risk to develop psychosis? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Cannabis use may cause people to develop psychosis, a state where it may be difficult to distinguish what’s real from what isn’t, a recent study found. Ryan Vandry, a cannabis researcher at Johns Hopkins, says neither this study nor any other previous research is able to prove causality.

Vandry: Once psychosis has been diagnosed use of cannabis tends to exacerbate symptoms, so it’s a bad idea for folks with psychosis to use cannabis. It tends to counteract some of the other treatments that are happening. That kind of lends itself to well this is causing it and that kind of thing. So it’s complex, they’re definitely linked together but whether there’s causality remains a mystery.  :25

Vandry says that people who are considering cannabis use should also factor in their family history of mental illness before using the drug. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.