Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
Volume 42, Issue 12, Pages 2485-2497Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291712000803
Keywords
Cannabis use; conversion; high risk; prodrome; psychosis; social functioning
Categories
Funding
- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [R01 MH061523]
- BMS
- Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
- Janssen/JJ
- NIMH
- National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD)
- Otsuka
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background. Clinical and epidemiological studies suggest an association between cannabis use and psychosis but this relationship remains controversial. Method. Clinical high-risk (CHR) subjects (age 12-22 years) with attenuated positive symptoms of psychosis (CHR+, n=101) were compared to healthy controls (HC, n=59) on rates of substance use, including cannabis. CHR+ subjects with and without lifetime cannabis use (and abuse) were compared on prodromal symptoms and social/role functioning at baseline. Participants were followed an average of 2.97 years to determine psychosis conversion status and functional outcome. Results. At baseline, CHR+ subjects had significantly higher rates of lifetime cannabis use than HC. CHR+ lifetime cannabis users (n=35) were older (p=0.015, trend), more likely to be Caucasian (p=0.002), less socially anhedonic (p<0.001) and had higher Global Functioning : Social (GF: Social) scores (p<0.001) than non-users (n=61). CHR+ cannabis users continued to have higher social functioning than non-users at follow-up (p<0.001) but showed no differences in role functioning. A small sample of CHR+ cannabis abusers (n=10) showed similar results in that abusers were older (p=0.008), less socially anhedonic (p=0.017, trend) and had higher baseline GF: Social scores (p=0.006) than non-abusers. Logistic regression analyses revealed that conversion to psychosis in CHR+ subjects (n=15) was not related to lifetime cannabis use or abuse. Conclusions. The current data do not indicate that low to moderate lifetime cannabis use is a major contributor to psychosis or poor social and role functioning in clinical high-risk youth with attenuated positive symptoms of psychosis.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available