Doctors: Pot triggers psychotic symptoms

[babylonsister]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_he_me/marijuana_mental_health;_ylt=Aqi3HOTdXzZoltGZ6hhmNkPMWM0F

Doctors: Pot triggers psychotic symptoms

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer 30 minutes ago

LONDON - New findings on marijuana's damaging effect on the brain show the drug triggers temporary psychotic symptoms in some people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors say.

British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo.

One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug's damaging influence on the human brain.

"We've long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works," said Dr. Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King's College, London.

more...

[Monkeyman]

1. Like Wow Man

:smoke:

[Dora]

2. I'm hungry.

:popcorn:

[Mojambo]

3. I'm not getting that.

I need to get a new guy...

[splat]

4. Is that stop sign a lollipop?

[Bicoastal]

5. Whoah, like Dave's not here, man....

...Hey, anyone else see what the ceiling is doing?

:crazy:

[splat]

6. The ceiling is unlimited, man

[kedrys]

14. Submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling

They keep me sleepless at night.

--king crimson :P

[unhappycamper]

33. Dave who?

n/t

[KaryninMiami]

7. Good- maybe if I smoke enough pot

I'll believe that Bush never happened. A psychotic break like that would be a welcome relief...

[mmonk]

8. So that's why.............never mind.

[Lint Head]

9. Why is it that pricks always find the good shit?

:dem:

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

10. That's heavy, dude!

I'm like, trippin', man... I can dig it. It's like a crystal in my mind, you know, like a blue dot right between my eyebrows that glows with some weird, evanescent light that whispers the words of the wind and stars the color of desire reaching out in tendrils into the vast, indefinite cosmosphere.

[zanne]

38. You wax poetic when stoned.

No, really. Do you write?

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

52. nah... channeling Alan Ginsburg. LOL ( eom).

[zanne]

57. Do you weep on your typewriter? nt

[kedrys]

11. Yeah, when I run out...

:P

I've had to quit, actually, but I've never seen nor heard of such symptoms.

[Jcrowley]

12. Satan's Bongwater

[Gregorian]

13. NO IT DOESN'T!......GET AWAY FROM ME!!!

It's true. I spent many years being stoned. And I was terrified that someone was out to arrest me.


Edit- :)

[DemGa]

15. That's what happens when you isolate the cannabidiol

from the THC.

:scared:

[Oilwellian]

16. I'll have....

what that guy on the floor is smoking. B-)

[babylonsister]

17. This is a SERIES article! All youse bozos on this bus, I dunno...

but thanks for the laughs!
:spray:

[rosesaylavee]

28. My son's best friend had a

psychotic episode from smoking pot... silly kid went back and tried it again to make sure it was the pot. It was. Landed him in the hospital both times. Scared everyone to death. Pot just ain't for everyone.

[babylonsister]

29. Wow. I recall a bit of paranoia 'in my youth', but not psychosis.

Of course, 'in my youth' weed was a lot less potent, too.
Sounds like your son's friend learned a lesson he won't soon forget, and he's lucky.

[rosesaylavee]

35. Yeah. Who knows what was in this stuff

but he did try it at least two times from different sources. My son called the paramedics the last time - it was that scary.

[nebenaube]

18. utter bullshit n/t

[tridim]

19. I guess I better start shooting meth then

because apparently smoking pot just isn't doing it for me, so sayeth "Doctors".

[mark414]

20. but i LIKE the hallucinations

[MazeRat7]

21. I've gotta get a new dealer... mine is apparently selling me crap.... -nt

[Blue_In_AK]

22. That explains so much.

:rofl:

[spacelady]

23. Yeah....um why don't we just go ahead and study that again

while....oh there's my stapler, um, by the way how's that TPS report coming along?

[melody]

24. So does religion, but I don't see anyone trying to outlaw that

To say nothing of politics.

[berni_mccoy]

25. "We don't really know what causes Global Warming, if it indeed exists."

I think these British doctors were paid by the same organizations...

or maybe I'm having psychotic symptoms...

[IChing]

26. I see this when I watch CNN, MSNBC, FAUX or any-other MSM- Psychotic? I don't know tell me.

shiny bubbles going down a drain

OH, look there is Anna Nicole
and over there is that other blond chick.

what a bunch of crap, just like this report.

[Fovea]

27. Be afraid

and turn in your neighbors.

[Madspirit]

30. Gosh...

Hahahahahaha...like this ONE thing outweighs all the other scientific evidence....BOATLOADS of evidence...

In fact, EVERY psychiatrist I've ever known and I've probably been to/been friends with/known....more psychiatrists than Woody Allen...and every single one, without exception thought pot should be legal.

Lee

[gravity]

31. That's why I stopped smoking

Weed can make me very paranoid, and I have strange hallucinations sometimes, like hearing voices and seeing strange patterns of colors.

For me at least, if I smoke enough, weed will fuck me up more than any other substance. Well except for this one time on acid, but anyways it can be really scary stuff.

It affects everyone differently, and I know many people who just don't like doing it for similar reasons.

[WinstonSmith4740]

32. Huh?

Wow. A whole 15 people, no control group, no double-blind study. I've been smoking for over 35 years, and I still haven't seen any of this bullshit proven. I agree some folks (who probably have addictive personalities) can have a tough time with it, and some may have weird experiences, but c'mon. This makes me think this stuff they used may have been spiked. Personally, I think doctors tend to cause pyschotic episodes.:smoke:

[H2O Man]

34. Right.

There is a segment of the population that will have negative consequences if they use marijuana. Every person in the field of psychiatric social work will be familiar with people who are "MICA," or mentally ill, chemical abusers. And a significant number of those have psychotic disorders, and they tend to become symptomatic when they smoke pot. Likewise, there are people who are not suffering from a mental illness who will experience psychotic symptoms when they use marijuana.

[Ganja Ninja]

36. What a load of crap. n/t

[WilliamPitt]

37. Kinda like beer, wine, scotch, whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, tequila...

I've never seen anyone go psycho from those things.

:eyes:

[kimmylavin]

39. 15 Whole People?

Alert the press!

The damn "some people" thing applies to just about everything: religion, cigarettes, alcohol, violent behavior, etc.

What a crock.

[EstimatedProphet]

40. That's not true. Only the good stuff does that kind of thing

Schwag just makes you cough a lot. You have to get the really kind bud to hallucinate!

[Philosoraptor]

41. Indeed. That's why I switched to Crack.

[mainegreen]

42. No shit sherlock. Thats why its called a drug: TEMPORARY altered state of mind.

Christ on a pogo stick, how is this news? Drugs alter your mind and make wackos even nuttier. We've known this for what, 5,000+ years?
Next up: scientists discover sky really *is* blue.

[skids]

46. Yeah, and newsflash: they wear off.

The whole POINT of drugs is to take a temporary jaunt through an altered state of mind. A little dose of paranoia and some sensory distortion can help one get a fresh perspective, and exercise neglected faculties. I view taking drugs as essentially the equivalent of tying one leg behind your back. You have trouble doing stuff, but you get a good workout on the other leg muscles.

As long as the set and setting is appropriate the drugs wear off no harm done. Set and setting are not helped at all by the drug war, as awareness of where and when it is appropriate to use drugs is very harder come by when the answer from the squares is always "nowhere" and "never." We need normalization.

[Jonathan50]

43. Ummm... Marinol is essentially pure synthetic delta 9 THC

And yet I don't hear of people having that sort of reaction to Marinol even though I understand it has a very strong buzz to it.

I wonder just what variety of THC these researchers were administering?

Every drug has a small percentage of the population which reacts badly to it, that is a fact of nature.

Have these researchers ever heard of delirium tremens?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens

Delirium tremens (colloquially, the DTs, "the horrors", "the shakes" or "rum fits;" literally, "shaking delirium" or "trembling madness" in Latin) is an acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal or abstinence from alcohol following habitual excessive drinking. Delirium tremens can also appear after a rapid reduction in the amount of alcohol being consumed by heavy drinkers, or as a complication of withdrawal from benzodiazepines or barbiturates. It only occurs in individuals with a history of constant, long-term alcohol consumption. Delirium tremens typically manifests about 18 to 24 hours after discontinuation of alcohol consumption, but can appear two or three days after.

Five percent of acute ethanol withdrawal cases progress to delirium tremens<1>. Unlike the withdrawal syndrome associated with opiate or stimulant addiction, delirium tremens (and alcohol withdrawal in general) can be fatal. Mortality can be up to 35% if untreated; if treated early, death rates range from 5-15%.

*****************************************************************************************************

So, do you get that? Alcohol withdrawal can kill you.

Has anyone ever heard of a case of withdrawal from cannabis killing someone?

[BlueIris]

44. I still support decriminalization, but--yeah.

This actually jives with descriptions of behaviors some doctors have told me they've observed in (heavy) pot smokers. I also have one family member who has been a heavy smoker for many, many years who has displayed psychotic behavior intermittently for the last five of those years. Yes, I understand that my subjective, individual experience does not a scientific finding make, but still...I'm not sure why anyone is surprised to find this out. I'm aware that marijuana may have certain effects on the body which are beneficial in some ways, especially for cancer patients and the terminally ill, but--it's not like it's a vitamin or anything. It's not "nothing" and it's not good for you.

[DemExpat]

53. Decriminalization - yes, legalization - no.

This study confirms my own experiences in the 70's with the substance, and I have advised my 2 children not to use it.
I also think that there are beneficial uses of it as well.
But I agree, its not as benign (to some) as many would like to think it is.

DemEx

[paparush]

45. Yeah Like, "Hey, I DON"T think I'll kill a bunch of people today.."

[ck4829]

47. Temporary psychotic symptoms... hallucinations... paranoid delusions...

I think we figured out what Cheney is smoking.

[Joe Fields]

48. Bunk! I don't believe it, especially when the report comes from

a branch of the British government. Now they wouldn't have an agenda, would they?

Come on, one in ten users suffer from hallucinations and paranoia? That right there is a good reason to dismiss the findings.

[Ezlivin]

49. Not real pot, but "small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis"

Smoking pot means smoking the whole bud, not dosing yourself with chemical extracts of the plant.

If I gave an uninitiated person a gram of hash and had them smoke it, you can bet that they'd have hallucinations and paranoia.

Moderation is the key; if you don't know how strong the pot is you're likely to overdo it. If you're using White Widow, AK47, Kali Mist or any of the modern breed of marijuana, just one toke will do ya.

[porphyrian]

50. Yeah, saying the effects are "damaging" a whole lot doesn't make it so.

I'm afraid you can prove the same instance of "psychotic effects" caused by religion, and without the convenient excuse of an introduced chemical.

[Cerridwen]

51. Shall we check the listed side effects of legal pharmecuticals?

Shall we post how some people react to various medications prescribed by doctors? How about the side effects from over the counter meds people buy and take every day? What about the recently publicized side effects some people have to certain anti-depressant medications?

Someone name me any drug that has NO side effects. Then, find those "15 healthy volunteers" and have them ingest pot in its "natural" state and report those findings rather than the findings of what happens to people after ingesting "small doses of the active ingredients of cannabis."

Perhaps cannabis is safer if not put through someone's chemistry set before being ingested? This "research" has some serious holes in it. I'm not buying.

[earth mom]

54. Based on what happened with some family members, I believe it.

That's why I am one of the few around here with the unpopular opinion that pot shouldn't be legalized and only used medicinally for patients with cancer, ms, etc. :hide:

[DrunkenMaster]

55. This reminds me of Dr Magnan's Absinthe Experiments in the 1880s

If good weed and absinthe make you crazy, I'm in deep shite.....

Seriously, though: do people still believe this garbage?

[carly denise pt deux]

56. paranoid delusions....it wouldn't have anything to do with it being illegal now would it

would there be paranoid delusions if it were legal?
hmm, those same symptoms seem to also occur in the medication that is giving for pain, depression, etc...and those are legal...go figure
Carly

[WindRavenX]

58. This study is bunk. 15 people is a horrible sample size.

And there is no doubt that for some people, pot can cause anxiety and paranoia--but hallucinations? That I highly, highly doubt.

I call major BS on this study.

[Lilith Velkor]

59. That reminds me

I haven't visited the 9/11 forum in a while. :smoke:

[WindRavenX]

60. !

:rofl:

[HughMoran]

61. That's why I don's smoke it any more

Too much paranoia and associated bizarre feelings and actions.

Some people just don't align well with it though most people I know do.

I support legalizing it though as it's no worse than alcohol IMHO.

[spanone]

62. That's why you smoke it you fools.

Reefer Madness. If only Eli Lilly had a patent on it.

[Alexander]

63. Crock. Of. Shit.

If something as innocuous as weed makes you go crazy, chances are you're already crazy to begin with.