Daily Pot Use Tied To Age of First Psychotic Episode 382
An anonymous reader writes "Reuters reports, 'In a study of adults who experienced psychosis for the first time, having smoked marijuana daily was linked to an earlier age of onset of the disorder.' ..."This is not a study about the association between cannabis and psychosis, but about the association between specific patterns of cannabis use ... and an earlier onset of psychotic disorders,' Dr. Marta Di Forti, who led the research at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, said in an email. Among more than 400 people in South London admitted to hospitals with a diagnosed psychotic episode, the study team found the heaviest smokers of high-potency cannabis averaged about six years younger than patients who had not been smoking pot. Psychosis is a general term for a loss of reality, and is associated with several psychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. ... "The thorny question is whether they might otherwise have developed the disease or would have not had mental illness. It's a distinction we haven't figured out yet," Compton said. ... It is still unclear whether there are safe levels of use for cannabis, she added. '"
Re:Cause and effect may be backwards (Score:5, Funny)
oh, yes, 1936.
"Marihuana turns you GAY!!"
Well, fuck me, as long as that's all it does...
Re:Cause and effect may be backwards (Score:5, Funny)
> methinks your sarcasm detector is busted.
Too much pot perhaps?
Re:Source data for this study? (Score:5, Funny)
From TFA: [yahoo.com]
The researchers surveyed 410 patients between the ages of 18 and 65, two thirds of them male, all of whom had a psychotic episode and were admitted to in-patient psychiatric units.
I'm not a statisticianololgist, but passing out surveys to psychotic people in a mental hospital doesn't seem to me to be the best way to gather accurate data for a study.
This study's major flaw is that the researchers needed 10 more patients to pass the threshold for statistical relevance.