The connection between cannabis and psychosis in adolescents real

Sam’s father sat on a leather sofa in our clinical interview room, head in his hands. He just finished tell us a long, painstaking history of the son of a son in psychosis. Sam (name changed for privacy protection), then 17, began accidentally using marijuana with friends in ninth grade. He also “masks” with other substances (Xanax, Ecstasy), but cannabis was the most consistent.

Sam’s father told me that he and his wife were Cannabis itself is used A remarkable amount in college and inclined to agree with his son when he said to them, “Don’t worry, it’s just a pot!” They begged him to buy it at cannabis stores, not receive it “on the street.”

In California, where I work as a researcher and a clinician, studying the links between cannabis and psychosis, it is not difficult to get a marijuana medical card, even for a teenager.

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Sam started high school as a pretty good student with several friends. Over time, he began to use cannabis daily. He accepted it in a variety of ways, first with friends at parties, and then more and more alone. His parents noticed more strange behavior: he covered the camera on his laptop, and then placed the cardboard over the windows in his room. He stopped the soul. They from time to time heard him mutilation in his room, and he began to refuse to go to school. Against his will, his parents took him to a rehabilitation institution for teenagers. During the three -week program, it was completely abstained from cannabis, but anxiously its psychotic symptoms deteriorated rather than the best; Just stopping for Sam to recover.

At the time when his family came to our clinic, he had persistent delusions for more than six months. Sam was fully convinced that the government was watching it and constantly examining it. The hours passed to make his parents convince him that day. Until we know whether cannabis Sam’s cannabis has caused it that his symptoms have not departed when he stopped using. Cannabis may have changed its brain chemistry.

That people need to know that this cannabis just not the same As an original plant used in the 1960s -1980s, and even recently 10 years ago. These are new Cannabis strain is very powerfulmakes them more exciting and potentially more dangerousAnd we’re still tries to understand What it does for the development of a teenage brain. As a scientist and father, I recommend that teens to avoid using cannabis at least the mid-1920s, but I understand that this may not be the most realistic advice. If your teenagers are going to use today’s cannabis, it is critical that you can know about data that shows what other beast was, and the risk of major mental health problems.

All cannabis products contain a mixture of Delta-9-tetrahydrodrocanabino (Thc), alcoholic component of cannabis and cannabidiol (CBR) plant that can have anxiety restoring properties. In the 90s, marijuana in the typical joint contained about 5 percent thc.

But genetic modification sharply increased the potency of TGC; From 1995 to 2015 increased by 212 percent in content in The average cannabis plantAnd these are not just joints or pan; With the help of legalization and commercialization of cannabis there are little restrictions on the level of TGC for products such as the rapid action of the pen and edible products. The fact that teenagers, like Sam, can buy today are nothing but his parents used in college.

WITH The risk of psychosis With higher Thc potency, it begins to use and use more often. Canadian research team that studies over 11,000 teenagers 11 times increase The risk of developing psychotic disorder compared to non -user. Due to such difficult data, some researchers began to sound anxiety. But we try to get this information to people who need to hear it most: parents, educators and legislators.

And although there is no clear consensus that cannabis causes psychosis, such studies as I mention, well developed and carefully analyzed, still indicate that two things are related.

Another big question We try to answer: why is the increased risk of psychosis so deep in adolescents? Researchers in my industry believe it has something in common with a deep coup happens in the brains of teenswhich lasts in our early 20s. That’s when psychotic disorders usually begin. The same molecules in our brain, which interact with TGC (known as endocanabinoid system), play an important role in brain development. And there were evidence of both animal and human studies that early cannabis irradiation can disrupt the brain or neurons, Respond to what we are experiencingAnd how they talk to each other to make this experience memories.

So how do you talk to your children about today’s cannabis? When families come to our clinic for young people who are at risk of psychosis, we ask children why they use cannabis, what are their causes and how they feel afterwards. We ask them why they can stop using and can they stop if they need. And then: Why not try to stay for a few days and see how you feel? Answers help us to estimate whether this teenager has a cannabis dependence.

Some teens tell us they can stop. But others do not want. For them, we apply the “reduction” approach. That is we recommend Avoiding products with high fraction And that they choose instead products with higher CBD-Tthc ratios.

If you have a teenager at home, or soon, the chances are that they will be exposed to many cannabis in many forms – at school, at parties, all over the neighborhood. Never early to have this conversation. Some of this is to make sure that you have a good “literacy of cannabis” and encourage your child to look for authoritative sources of information, not believe that they hear from friends or see social networks. WITH National Drug Abuse Institute This is a good start. This can help set clear rules and limits around the use of cannabis you all agree and establish what the consequences are to violate these rules. Parents should encourage clear, not judgments to use and encourage their children to share their issues and problems.

For Sam, we recommended constant psychiatric treatment and family therapy, which the family showed useful for navigation challenges with very different expectations that they now had from their son, given that he lives with a chronic psychotic disorder. If your child begins to feel anxious symptoms or unusual behavior – for example, how to isolate yourself from others, talking to yourself, or seeing or seeing things that other people do not see psychological treatment immediately. Your family doctor or pediatric pediatrician may provide a specialist for evaluation and treatment.

Like so many things that our children are now exposed to, a significantly changed landscape of cannabis products and their accessibility is an experiment that none of us agreed to the conscious. The best thing we can do is try to make our inverse consent (and our children) as informed as possible.

It is an article of thought and analysis and views expressed by the author or authors Scientific American.