Marijuana, Psychosis in Teens Correlated

Marijuana use among teens and psychosis has a two-way relationship, researchers say.

According to researchers, teens addicted to marijuana may be more likely to develop psychotic symptoms and psychosis or mental health problems may encourage teens to use pot, Reuters Health reported.

Psychosis is a term used to describe an abnormal condition of the mind that involves false beliefs known as delusions and hallucinations (seeing and hearing things that does not happen).

"We have focused mainly on temporal order; is it the chicken or the egg? As the study shows, it is a bidirectional relationship," the study's lead author Merel Griffith-Lendering, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University in The Netherlands, told Reuters Health.

Griffith-Lendering and colleagues looked at more than 2,000 Dutch teenagers. All the participants were interviewed about their pot use at different stages - at age 14, 16 and 19. All the participants also underwent tests that checked their risks of psychosis.

About 940 teens (44 percent) were found using pot. Surprisingly, they noticed a bidirectional link between pot use and their mental condition.

Teens who used pot at 16 were found developing psychotic symptoms three years later and teens with psychotic symptoms at 16 were found using pot later.

Results remained same even after researchers considered other factors like prevalence of alcohol, tobacco use and mental illness among the participant's families.

However, the study couldn't fully prove whether one factor led to the other.

"We can say for some people that cannabis comes first and psychosis comes second, but for some people they have some (undiagnosed) psychosis (and) perhaps cannabis makes them feel better," Dr. Marta Di Forti, of King's College, London, who was not involved with the new research, told Reuters Health.

Concerned with the findings, researchers urged authorities to take appropriate actions to prevent the occurrence.

Findings of the study have been published in the journal Addiction.