Adolescents who use cannabis could face a significantly higher risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders by young adulthood, according to a large new study published today in JAMA Health Forum. The longitudinal study followed 463,396 adolescents ages 13 to 17 through age 26 and found that past-year cannabis use during adolescence was associated with a significantly higher risk of incident psychotic (doubled), bipolar (doubled), depressive and anxiety disorders.
The study analyzed electronic health record data from routine pediatric visits between 2016 and 2023. Cannabis use preceded psychiatric diagnoses by an average of 1.7 to 2.3 years. The study’s longitudinal design strengthens evidence that adolescent cannabis exposure is a potential risk factor for developing mental illness.
Unlike many prior studies, the research examined any self-reported past-year cannabis use, with universal screening of teens during standard pediatric care, rather than focusing only on heavy use or cannabis use disorder.
The study also found that cannabis use was more common among adolescents enrolled in Medicaid and those living in more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods, raising concerns that expanding cannabis commercialization could exacerbate existing mental health disparities.
Even if that's true, the point is that correlation =/= causation. WOOOSH!!!
When people like you attempt to blame w33d, that's pseudo-science probably not even based on real science.
And again it's a tale as old as prohibition.
So, your claim is that there is a not a system of complex endo cannabinoids mediating signaling in the brain, which have been defined to affect learning and memory for 50 years. And, that it is "crazy" to think that ingesting large amounts of a foreign cannabinoid, not native to this system, does not affect the human brain?
Yep, that's why I typed "correlated" instead of "causes".