Interesting study coming from BMJ Mental Health that shows a correlation between self-diagnosing and a higher rate of paranoia development.
This came from a survey of 3,389 cannabis users with no clinical history of psychosis. The self-medication consisted of use for pain, anxiety, or depression as opposed to fun or curiosity.
It definitely makes sense, considering that users who medicate with marijuana tend to use the product much more than the curious. This was borne out in the study, with average users consuming 206 units of THC a week compared to the self-diagnosed group consuming around 250 units.
Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at King’s College, said “I think lots of people who now know that cannabis can cause psychosis, they say ‘these people are not like me’. That’s not true. What we can show in this study is that the effect of cannabis is a bit like the effect of alcohol or the effect of food, that it’s a dimension. So the more you take, the more problems you get into.”
In summation, the results of the survey aren’t surprising, just put in a slightly new way. We know that more marijuana comes with higher risk, and the medicated population certainly has a higher tendency of falling in that camp due to dependancy.
Read the original article at The Guardian.
