Possible Interaction: Marijuana and Antipsychotic Agents

“Cohort-wide, we found a strong, dose-dependent relationship between cannabis use and all four types of psychotic experiences, especially persecutory delusions.”

“However, it is unclear whether cannabis disproportionately increases the risk of specific types of psychotic experiences and whether genetic predisposition influences the relationship between cannabis use and psychotic experiences.”

“Individuals genetically predisposed to schizophrenia may be especially vulnerable to psychotic experiences as a result of using cannabis , supporting a long-postulated hypothesis.”

“Our results suggest that cannabis use is a predictive risk factor for psychotic experiences, including early-onset and distressing experiences.”

“Retrospective prediction of individual benefits revealed that more cannabis users had slower and lower responses to antipsychotic treatment as compared to non-cannabis users, revealing cannabis use as a negative prognostic factor for psychotic disorders in the disorganized dimension.”

“The potential for increased cannabis use highlights the need to better understand its risks, including the acute induction of psychotic and other psychiatric symptoms.”

“They summarize evidence from cross-sectional studies that suggest that the risks of psychotic experiences and symptoms are greater among those who begin using cannabis earlier than age 14, well below the lowest age (18 years) possible in Canada’s Federal legislation.”

“ Cannabis use was also associated with increased relapse rates, more hospitalizations and pronounced positive symptoms in psychotic patients.”

“Conclusions and Relevance In this study, our findings indicate that while individuals who use cannabis or cigarettes during adolescence have an increased risk of subsequent psychotic experiences, epidemiological evidence is substantively more robust for cannabis use than it is for tobacco use.”

“ Cannabis can induce transient psychotic and anxiety symptoms and long-lasting disorders.”

“Conclusions Cannabis use increases the risk of non-adherence and quitting cannabis use may help adherence to antipsychotics.”

“ Cannabis exacerbates psychotic symptoms and leads to poor functional outcomes.”

“Together, this suggests that cannabis use might be associated with worse clinical outcomes in psychosis by contributing towards failure of antipsychotic treatment.”