--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote:
>
> > > > Pot has been used for thousands of years and has never been
> > > > anything but a boon to any culture -- until Hearst et al.
> > >
> > > Actually, research being done at Columbia University for the
> > > last 10 years shows that cannabis use (yes plain old marijuana)
> > > increases the likelihood of developing psychosis by
> > > ten fold.
> >
> > You are joking right? Another satire?
> >
> > quote ----
> > Down at the bottom of the CNN report ("Marijuana may increase
> > psychosis risk, analysis says ") on the Lancet published study that
> > claims that frequent marijuana use may cause psychosis we find:
>
> Bingo:
>
> http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556097_6
>
> I will allow Ruth and others who like delving
> into research to do so on this one, but it looks
> to me as if they started backwards and worked
> towards a foregone conclusion.
>
> That is, according to the first paragraph of the
> article, researchers noticed that people with
> schizophrenia had a higher usage of cannabis. So
> it appears to me that they overlooked the rather
> *obvious* conclusion -- that the schizophrenia
> predated the cannabis use, and that schizophrenics
> were trying to self-medicate using cannabis -- and
> went instead for the "answer they had already
> prepared." That is, that there was a causal link
> between cannabis use and schizophrenia.
>
> Here's what this article says about the Columbia
> University "study." Note that they *started with*
> 33 patients who already had established symptoms
> of psychosis, and then "worked backwards" to try
> to establish the link to cannabis use. Sounds to
> me like starting with a bunch of diabetes patients
> and discovering that because diabetes makes you
> thirsty they all drink water. Therefore there is
> a causal link between drinking water and diabetes. :-)
>
> Note also what constitutes "psychotic-like symptoms"
> for these researchers -- "suspiciousness and percep-
> tual disturbances." Given those criteria, Nabby and
> Judy are psychotic, because they are definitely
> suspicious of pretty much everyone and they talk
> about rather disturbing perceptions like believing
> in UFOs. One of them (Judy) has even admitted to
> having smoked marijuana in her youth, and the other
> (Nabby) probably toked up before that stick got
> lodged up his butt so far that he could no longer
> inhale. Their cannabis use was what made them
> psychotic -- clear as day. :-)
>
> Cheryl Corcoran, MD, Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychiatry, New
> York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Center for
> Prevention and Evaluation (COPE) prodromal program, conducted a study
> to determine whether or not cannabis was associated temporally with
> psychotic-like symptoms (such as suspiciousness and perceptual
> disturbances) in a prospective cohort study of prodromal patients.[23]
> She presented data from 33 such participants, all of whom met criteria
> for the presence of attenuated positive symptoms; 8 also had a genetic
> risk by virtue of a family history of psychosis. Participants (27
> males and 6 females) were aged 14 to 25 years (mean: 18.7 ± 3.7
> years), and were assessed using a validated instrument for the
> assessment of prodromal symptoms, as well as a time-line follow-back
> method to assess days of substance use, in addition to a number of
> other measures. The researchers found that cannabis use was associated
> with perceptual disturbances among these prodromal patients, even when
> controlling for relevant covariates, such as alcohol use, medications,
> and life events. Similarly, cannabis use also was associated with
> anxiety and general psychosocial functioning.
>
Thanks for getting the details on this Barry. I have only my memory of the
presentation at
Columbia, and had not bothered to research the study itself - I heard several
other
presenters that day and got more involved in their info and workshops. At that
conference
I did speak to a few families and patients for whom this rang true. Very sad
situation. So,
sorry if I caused some upset here.
