Adolescents who use cannabis could face a significantly higher risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders by young adulthood, according to a large new study published today in JAMA Health Forum. The longitudinal study followed 463,396 adolescents ages 13 to 17 through age 26 and found that past-year cannabis use during adolescence was associated with a significantly higher risk of incident psychotic (doubled), bipolar (doubled), depressive and anxiety disorders.
The study analyzed electronic health record data from routine pediatric visits between 2016 and 2023. Cannabis use preceded psychiatric diagnoses by an average of 1.7 to 2.3 years. The study’s longitudinal design strengthens evidence that adolescent cannabis exposure is a potential risk factor for developing mental illness.
Unlike many prior studies, the research examined any self-reported past-year cannabis use, with universal screening of teens during standard pediatric care, rather than focusing only on heavy use or cannabis use disorder.
The study also found that cannabis use was more common among adolescents enrolled in Medicaid and those living in more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods, raising concerns that expanding cannabis commercialization could exacerbate existing mental health disparities.
Regular reminder that correlation =/= causation. Living a more stressful life due to poverty makes both mental illness and adolescent cannabis use more common.
That said there is a credible biological pathway to cannabis use having a causal role:
However we still don't have definitive evidence of causation:
Additionally, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are both heritable conditions, and if a parent or grandparent has one of these diagnoses, the family is significantly more likely to also be experiencing poverty or other adverse events, which in turn makes it more likely that the predisposed child will develop the inherited condition.
That is exactly what I was wondering.
And it gets even more complex, because suppose you have these mental conditions - your threshold for taking medicine and / or drugs is probably lower.
So right now there's still a good chance causation can be inverse.
That said, very important to take these studies seriously. No one should care about being right, it will always be about getting it right.
Classic case of using cannabis as a scapegoat in a random study to "prove" how harmful it is. Tale as old as time.
"I don't like the result of this study so its random and wrong."
Lol. Lmao even. What was that about tales as old as time?
I lean toward that interpretation but am open to being wrong.
I work in mental health and was surprised by the amount of people in the field who believe marijuana is part of the problem, not just a symptom of it.
As someone that came out of a CSA victim position, most everyone I knew that was using in High School - the girls most of all - were dealing with similar issues.
Whether it was low-key sexual assault - being groped, or pressured to "put out" or even family friends or relatives, (in my own case it was "Uncle Touchy" in 1978, when I was 13.. He was 34, hairy, chicken-chested and gross and thought he was God's Gift to women..) in the late 70's / early 80's there was a lot of sexual abuse that was part of the landscape for girls "growing up".
Much of it came out of the social norms of the time - the fallout of the "swinging" 70's where it was all about sex. 24/7 sex, preferrably with 14 year olds, as that was the age in which the consensus was that there was something wrong with you if your cherry hadn't been popped.. Just a dreadful era, honestly.
The pot use was to numb the pain and forget what they'd gone through. I chose not to forget.. and got stoned anyhow.