Schizophrenia

[LegallyBlind]

http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevent...zophrenia.html

This is a really interesting article about the use of cannabis increasing your likelyhood of getting schizophrenia.

Tell me what you guys think.

LegallyBlind Reviewed by LegallyBlind on 04-03-2006. Schizophrenia http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/cannabis.marijuana.schizophrenia.html This is a really interesting article about the use of cannabis increasing your likelyhood of getting schizophrenia. Tell me what you guys think. Rating: 5

[Crispyfried]

If you read the newer studies on Pubmed, there is actually almost no real link. Studies can be manipulated to make the results turn out to be what the researchers or the funders of the research want.

[Hollandica]

a 600% increase of the 0,00001% chance you get schizophrenia....

[miv]

Schizophrenia is not an objectively determinable fact. There is no test for schizophrenia. It cannot be proved or disproved.

Schizophrenia is an attribution, like ugliness. Your are schizophrenic when a psychiatrist decides that you are schizophrenic. Claims that cannabis causes schizophrenia are politically correct and will ensure researchers funds, but they can have no scientific basis, because science deals with demonstrable facts, not attributions.

Of course cannabis is a psychoactive substance. That's why people use it. Like all psychoactive substances, there is risk involved in its use. If we want to eliminate risks, we should start by prohibiting automobiles. Many more people are killed or permanently maimed from automobiles than from cannabis (which doesn't kill anybody).

[ToKnoIsToGro]

Yeah miv you're absolutely right, anything is dangerous when you think about it. After all, "safe" or "not dangerous" is merely defined as "the absence of risk". So, what then is "safe"? Of all the psychoactive substances, cannabis is the SAFEST, least physically addicting, and most able to be used recreationally. Drugs like cocaine and crystal meth cause psychosis and schizophrenia, due mainly to increased dopamine activity resulting in chemical inbalances, muthafucka.

[ToKnoIsToGro]

Also, the article clearly states "Cannabis / Marijuana (and other street drugs) Significantly Increases a Person's Risk for Schizophrenia ", key word that this research group clumps cannabis with "other street drugs". Also, just because the samples had never been TREATED for psychosis or schizophrenia does not mean that they had no pre-existing medical conditions of that nature. In addition, what is the integrity of the study which guarantees that none of the samples were using any other street drugs or taking any other medication, as well as any other genetic or social variables which would contribute to such a diagnosis? Furthermore, what exactly does "schizophrenia-spectrum disorders" mean? What is the margin of human error and mis-diagnosis? Even furthermore, the aticle is quoted with stating: "Cannabis use is associated with poor outcome in existing schizophrenia and may precipitate psychosis in individuals with preexisting liability." Yes, PRE-EXISTING LIABILITY. Which means any number of x-factors may have set off "schizophrenia-spectrum disorders". I have just taken the PRIME Early Screening Test for Schizophrenia and Psychosis and was informed that "Your answers to the schizophrenia screening test DO NOT suggest that you have the early signs of psychosis or schizophrenia" i mean if i would have been able to answer those questions in a manner indicating that i agree, i know i would be fuckin crazy, and up until four weeks ago, i have been a HEAVY cannabis smoker for the past 5 years since age 17. But i guess you can say i have been one of the lucky ones, whatever that means. Also, i cant quite make sense of the x-axis in relation to the y-axis of the risk graph displayed at page:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevent...zophrenia.html

[miv]

"Cannabis use is associated with poor outcome in existing schizophrenia

There is no such thing as "good outcome" in what is called schizophrenia, with or without cannabis. Once a person has acquired such a label, he is kept on prescription drugs that are a zillion times more neurotoxic and physically addictive than cannabis, guaranteeing lifelong disability.

Like I said above, schizophrenia is not an objectively demonstrable condition, it is a social attribution by a psychiatrist. When a psychiatrist knows or suspects that a person uses cannabis or other illegal drugs, he is more likely to attribute schizophrenia to the person. In this way, using cannabis "causes" schizophrenia.

[IanCurtisWishlist]

an old friend of mine has paranoid schizophrenia and i can tell you that it's just a fucking living hell for him. the only way i can describe the illness is being a bad LSD trip , all day every day with auditory and visual hallucinations. the thing is that once you're schizophrenic you learn that you can't even trust your own perception of the world, and that' s a very scary thing.

[miv]

an old friend of mine has paranoid schizophrenia and i can tell you that ... the only way i can describe the illness is being a bad LSD trip

I don't doubt that your friend's life is out of control. But there's a lot of information missing here. Not that I would want you to supply it (if you knew it), because it would in any case be applicable only to this one individual.

The problem is that like you, "researchers" too draw conclusions from anecdotes and incomplete information. The fact that some researchers claim that cannabis does cause schizophrenia, and others claim that it doesn't should be warning enough to us that the entire field of research is unreliable.

[D.Boone]

for a while i thought i was schizo but then i realised i was had just taken 3 hits of acid and i was fine.