Health Sciences 2700A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: White Noise, Catechol-O-Methyl Transferase, Prodrome
13 May 2018
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The Downside of High
Investigating the correlation between weed and
schizophrenia
• participant smoked weed right before his brain scan and it showed evidence of
schizophrenia and weed smoking correlation
‣first thing to suggest a connection was brain scan, excess dopamine
‣THC is the active ingredient in weed
• London journalist Margereen Wallace, research about schizophrenia believe the most
effective way to help is to educate young people of the consequences that pot cause
• Murray
‣people kept asking him if all the weed they took was connected to their
schizophrenia
‣found strong evidence in a Swedish research paper
- it followed 50,000 military group over 15 years and it found a direct
connection between schizophrenia and pot smoking
‣the more Cannabis someone took at 18 were 16x more likely to get diagnosed with
schizophrenia within the next 15 years compared to someone who didn't smoke any
‣thinks the most effective way for people to know about cannabis and schizophrenia
is to educate kids as their brains are growing and tell kids their robbing themselves of
their future
• weed doubled in Canada and USA in 1990s, took 15 years but finally a new wave of studies
came up and they supported much of the Swedish findings
• weed can send people into psychosis is a frightened state filled with anxiety and
hallucinations which is symptom/sign of schizophrenia
• Cannabis nearly doubles the risk of psychotic states like schizophrenia
‣if they smoke pot before the age of 16 they are very vulnerable they don't just double
but quadruple
• weed doubled in Canada and USA in 1990s, took 15 years but finally a new wave of studies
came up and they supported much of the Swedish findings
•Case Tyler :
‣smoked a lot and eventually collapsed
‣in and out of hospitals to control illness
‣diagnosed with schizophrenia
‣would build scenarios up in his mind and would think the world was ending every
night
‣was hearing voices and it was hard to get through to him
• Case Melanie:
‣frequent user after fist time cause friends said it was natural
‣given weed from vaporizer machine - got so high that she became manic and out of
reality where she ended up in the hospital
‣she was hallucinating - time zones that didn't exist and military
‣Manic, thought people were going to et her, in a time zone that didn't exist…bipolar
disorder and psychosis
‣hospitalized for three month
‣said it was like having a dream but your living it
• Case Ben:
‣smoked at 15 cause he wanted to see how it changes you
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