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- Title
Cannabis, psychosis and schizophrenia: unravelling a complex interaction.
- Authors
Hamilton, Ian
- Abstract
The relationship between cannabis and psychosis and schizophrenia has tested the field of addiction for decades, and in some ways serves as measure of our ability to provide a credible contribution to public health. As cannabis is used widely, many people are interested in the risks the drug poses to mental health. This paper focuses upon a seminal study examining this, the trajectory of subsequent research findings and what this has meant for understanding and communicating risk factor information. These studies provided evidence of a dose-response relationship between cannabis and psychosis, and that for those individuals with schizophrenia cannabis exacerbated their symptoms. The findings fit with a multi-causal model in which vulnerability interacts with a precipitating agent to produce a disease outcome. Even though this is a common model in epidemiology, it has proved difficult to communicate it in this case. This may be because at a population level the increased risk is weak and the vulnerabilities relatively rare. It may also be because people bring strongly held preconceptions to interpreting a complex multi-causal phenomenon.
- Subjects
EUROPE; CANNABIS (Genus); SCHIZOPHRENIA risk factors; DOSE-response relationship in biochemistry; MENTAL health; PUBLIC health; PHYSIOLOGICAL effects of drug abuse?; MOOD (Psychology); HISTORY of medical research; MEDICAL research; DISEASE risk factors
- Publication
Addiction, 2017, Vol 112, Issue 9, p1653
- ISSN
0965-2140
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/add.13826