Does Pot Use Produce Psychosis?

In the movies and among many teens and college students, the perception is that pot is relatively harmless. It mellows you out and the worst side effect is a bad case of the munchies, right? Not according to a new study. An article published in the latest issue of the professional journal Archives of General Psychiatry shows a much scarier potential effect of marijuana. It turns out that a chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), found in pot, increases the brain processes that can lead to symptoms of psychosis.

So what does that mean for the average person? Can smoking pot lead to psychosis? Are there are other possible health concerns uncovered by this new study?

Previous research has found that THC can induce symptoms of psychosis in healthy people and worsen psychotic symptoms in people already experiencing them. Long-term cannabis use is also associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, the study suggests.

The study is groundbreaking in another way: Its findings are the first to use images of the brain to demonstrate that the reason symptoms of psychosis arise in marijuana users may be because THC interferes with the brain's ability to distinguish between stimuli that are important, and those that aren't, according to the study.

The study, led by Dr. Sagnik Bhattacharyya, a psychopharmacologist at King's College in London, included 15 healthy men with minimal previous marijuana use. The researchers used functional MRI scans to observe the men's brains after they took pills containing THC, cannabidiol or a placebo. The resulting images showed changes in the areas of the brain that are believed to be linked to symptoms of psychosis. Men taking THC had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex but lower activity in the region called the striatum, changes that the study says could be attributed to THC’s ability to alter the brain's levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

While those in charge of the study don’t go to far as to say that prolonged marijuana use will make you psychotic, the findings are interesting and provide just one more argument for abstaining from pot use.

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