Posted by Vincent_QC on May 20, 2013, at 11:17:19
In reply to Re: Marijuana Not Medicine Addiction Docs Say » Meatwood_Flack, posted by SLS on May 1, 2013, at 6:47:55
> > I am aware of studies that show a vulnerability among teenagers who use marijuana to developing schizophrenia. I'm not familiar with studies that might show a decrease in IQ among teenaged users of marijuana.
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> This is some pretty serious stuff. There are already people submitting alternative explanations for the data reported here, but they have no data of their own. They only offer various ways to interpret this data. Marijuana advocates are quite passionate.
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> Medscape Medical News from the:
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> 14th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR)
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> Medscape Medical News > Conference News
> Cannabis Use in Teens Linked to Irreparable Drop in IQ
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> ORLANDO, Florida Cannabis users who start smoking the drug as adolescents show an irreparable decline in IQ, with more persistent use linked to a greater decline, new research shows. On the other hand, adult-onset cannabis use is not linked to a decline in IQ.
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> "Our results suggest that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to develop cognitive impairment from cannabis and that the drug, far from being harmless, as many teens and even adults are coming to believe, can have severe neurotoxic effects on the adolescent brain," lead investigator Madeline H. Meier, PhD, from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, told Medscape Medical News.
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> The study was presented here at the 14th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR).
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> Prospective Study
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> Studies on the neurocognitive effects of cannabis are particularly timely, inasmuch as 18 US states have legalized cannabis. The drug is also being used for medical indications, such as pain relief, which further creates the idea in people's minds that it is harmless, Dr. Meier said.
> Dr. Madeline Meier
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> "Case-control studies show that light to heavy cannabis use can cause enduring neuropsychological problems, but they are retrospective and there are no tests of premorbid functioning," she said.
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> In the current study, Dr. Meier and colleagues used data from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, which was conducted in Dunedin, New Zealand. This prospective study included a birth cohort of 1037 individuals born in 1972 and 1973, who were followed from birth and were seen every 2 years to age 38.
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> "This study has collected prospective life histories on its participants and had 95% retention," Dr. Meier said.
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> Participants' cannabis use was ascertained in interviews at ages 18, 21, 26, 32, and 38 years. IQ testing was done at age 8, 11, and 13 years, before the start of cannabis use, and again at age 38, after a pattern of persistent cannabis use had developed. One third of the cohort had never used cannabis.
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> After controlling for alcohol or drug dependence, socioeconomic status, and years of education, the researchers found that persistent cannabis use was associated with IQ decline when it was begun during the teenage years but not when begun in the adult years, after the age of 18.
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> Between the ages of 8 and 38 years, individuals who began using cannabis in adolescence and continued to use it for years thereafter lost an average of 8 IQ points. In contrast, IQ among individuals who never used cannabis actually rose slightly, Dr. Meier said.
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> Cessation of cannabis did not restore IQ among teen-onset cannabis users, she added.
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> "Anybody working with adolescents in particular has to be aware that adolescents are more at risk for cognitive functioning problems," Dr. Meier said.
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> "Also, when you are working with an adult patient in therapy who has been using cannabis since adolescence, be aware that they may not be functioning at their highest cognitive level, and so therapy should take that into account," she said.
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> Additionally, pediatricians and others adults who come in contact with children regularly should be aware of the danger, Dr. Meier added.
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> "I think teachers, parents, health educators, and pediatricians should all be trying to get the message out to adolescents that drugs, especially cannabis, are not harmless. I think that data in the US especially show that adolescents seem to be getting the message that cannabis is harmless, and trying to counteract that erroneous view is really important."
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> Particularly Potent Pot?
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> "As psychiatrists, we are all interested in psychosis, but we have to remember that psychosis only affects about 2% of the population, but we all have IQ," commented Robin MacGregor Murray, MD, DSc, professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, United Kingdom.
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> "If these results are borne out in other studies, and if what we have heard from Madeleine is true, because you can't immediately presume that one study is predictive of all studies, but if the effect of cannabis on IQ is replicated, then that's a really big deal," Dr. Murray told Medscape Medical News.
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> He added that the cannabis in New Zealand is very strong and has been so for years, with a THC content of approximately 9%. "That might account for these results," he said.
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> Dr. Murray also noted that other studies have shown that it takes a long time for the effects of cannabis to "wash out," and he would also like to see research on how long it takes adults to regain their memory and other cognitive functions once they stop using the drug.
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> Dr. Meier and Dr. Murray report no relevant financial relationships.
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> 14th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR). Abstract S267. Presented April 25, 2013.
>I'm not surprise about the link from use of marijuana and schizo...
As a teen, I smoked marijuana 3 times a day from 13 yo until 19 to... It didn't had an effect on my QI, never study a lot at school and had very good results, it never slow me or make me feel lazy but I start having panic attacks at 18 yo and they happened always after I smoked some weeds... I didn't know it was panic attacks at the time and I continue to smoke weeds for 1 more year until I had a major panic attack when I was sit in a class room at th college, that day I didn't smoke weeds before the panic attack start... I was so afraid that I get up in the middle of the course and run out and leave my things there and to in the bathroom thinking I had a heart attack!!!
After that out of the blue panic attack I had panic attacks out of the blue all the time and everywhere... I didn't linked it to marijuana at first and continue to smoke weeds but the attacks was more and more bigger.
One day at 19 yo after I smoke some weeds I had another panic attack and go by myself to the ER, I was told there that I had panic attacks, that I will need to see a psychologist and take an AD...
I took an appointment with my family Doc and he ask me to stop smoking weeds first and see if the panic attacks will stop. They didn't stop even after 2 months without smoking weeds. I return see my Doc and he put me on Paxil 30 mg day, I start seeing a psychologist and after 1 months I was free of panic...
Stop smoking weeds lead to insomnia, it took at least 6 months before I was able to fall asleep in less than 1 hour... I never realize that I was using weeds as a sedative before going to sleep, the biggest dose of weeds was the one before bedtime...
Anyway, in my mid 20's I tried to smoke weeds again, all my friends was smoking weeds at the time and I said to myself why not, 1 time will not kill me, big mistake, the panic attacks return and continue, I had to return on the Paxil and took another month before the attacks stop.
My Doc explain to me that weeds is the worse drug for anxiety and schizophrenia ...
I don't think it can lower the QI, we need more study about the effects on the brains of that drug... My sister, who was always the first of his class, she finish the university and win the first place cause she had the highest scores of all the 300 hundreds students in the same program, she's a tearcher and a very good one, and as a teen she smoked weeds often... She never take chemical drugs like me but she smoked weeds often for sure... My sister have depression problem, but I don't know if weeds lead to that... First major depression occur when she was pregnant and had to be put at the psychiatrist hospital for the first 4 months of pregnancy... She still have depression, and she's on 60 mg day of cymbalta since several years... She was on Zoloft when pregnant and Celexa after she had the baby...
So overall I think marijuana can trigger some psychiatrist diseases for sure, but I do think that those people's like me who develop a psychiatrist disorder from weeds smoking have a genetic predisposition... For the lower QI even if I don't read study about it, my experience and from all the people's I see around me who smoked weeds as a teen don't have a lower QI, they all had very good results at school, very smart and intelligent, more than the usual people's...
poster:Vincent_QC
thread:1042969
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130501/msgs/1043990.html