A new study released last week revealed links between teenagers who use marijuana and an increased risk of dangerous mental health disorders.
Researchers from the University of Toronto found that teenagers who used marijuana in some form in the last year were 11 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder compared to teenagers who did not use the drug, NBC News reported. The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine and released on Wednesday.
“When I see youths with psychotic symptoms, they’re almost always using lots of cannabis,” said Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn, chair of the psychiatry department at Indiana University and child psychiatrist. “It would be unusual to see someone present with psychotic symptoms to a hospital and not have smoked cannabis.”
It is the latest research to highlight the harmful health issues associated with marijuana use as a teenager. Among the problems linked to teenage marijuana were anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and suicidal ideation.
“I think that there’s enough evidence out there for us to give recommendations that teens probably shouldn’t be using cannabis,” said Andre McDonald, the study’s lead author. “If we can somehow ask teens to delay their use until their brain has developed a little further, I think that would be good for public health.”
Furthermore, multiple studies in recent years have identified this link between marijuana use and harmful mental health conditions. While some have implied that such disorders could facilitate the need and desire to use marijuana instead of marijuana being an impetus for mental health concerns, Hulvershorn dismissed that possibility, given the significance of the association of the current study’s findings.
“The magnitude of the effect here is just hard to believe that it’s not related to cannabis,” Hulvershorn said.
The research also found the connection between psychosis and marijuana use applied only to teenagers, NBC News reported. Individuals between the ages of 20 and 33 who used marijuana were found not to have any connection to psychotic disorders. This discovery appears to align with the revelations of previous research.
In an earlier study that Hulvershorn co-authored, researchers identified a link between “cannabis use in teenage years and negative mental health outcomes such as mental illness, depression, anxiety, and addiction. Addiction to cannabis is called cannabis use disorder (CUD). CUD is on the rise, and risks for developing CUD peak during the teenage years.”
This study also revealed that marijuana use as a teenager comes with “an increased risk of addiction in general.”
Other doctors echoed the sentiments behind such findings.
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“There’s something about that stage of brain development that we haven’t yet fully characterized — where there’s a window of time where cannabis use may increase the risk of psychosis,” said Dr. Kevin Gray, a professor of psychiatry and director of addiction sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina.
“This study really puts a fine point on delaying cannabis use until your 20s may mitigate one of the most potentially serious risks,” said Gray, who was not affiliated with the latest research.
Among teenagers who were part of the study and hospitalized for psychotic disorders, approximately 83% reported previously using marijuana.
“We see this replicated over and over again that there’s this developmental window of adolescence that’s very high-risk,” Gray said.