| Peer-Reviewed

Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications

Received: 1 December 2019     Accepted: 19 December 2019     Published: 31 December 2019
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Background. It is scientifically undeniable that there is a relationship between cannabis use, psychoses of different types and other mental disorders. Frequent use of cannabis as well as high potency synthetic cannabis has special clinical significance for public health. Method. A review of the best and most current specialized literature published in order to clarify possible controversies that still persist. The aim is to resolve certain doubts so that scientifically supported criteria on the risks and dangers of cannabis use for mental health can be issued without any prejudices. Result. Cannabis is the most used illegal drug in the US and worldwide over the past year. Some authors hypothesize about interaction bias and confounding that could annul the internal validity of many studies reporting on the dangers of cannabis for mental health. They also emphasize that cannabis use should not be criminalized. This is, however, a merely speculative or unrealistic hope that disregards the wealth of scientific data that reject the authors’ aspiration according to the available evidence consulted. Conclusion. The most qualified scientific journals, in line with the main professional institutions, have been rigorously and accurately informing their readers ˗and must continue doing it˗ of the dangers and harm caused by substance use, including cannabis. In short, the issue is to try to decrease the incidence of the related mental disorders which are sufficiently acknowledged. Mental health professionals cannot and must not be neutral or ambiguous regarding cannabis use, its collective spreading and the health risks that it entails.

Published in American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (Volume 7, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20
Page(s) 153-157
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Cannabis, Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, Mental Disorder, Legalization

References
[1] Freeman TP, van der Pol P, Kuijpers W, Wisselink J, Das RK, Rigter S, et al. Changes in cannabis potency and first-time admissions to drug treatment: a 16-year study in the Netherlands. Psychological Medicine 2018; 48 (14): 2346–52. doi: 10.1017/S0033291717003877.
[2] Cohen K, Weinstein AM. Synthetic and non-synthetic cannabinoid drugs and their adverse effects - a review from public health prospective. Frontiers in Public Health 2018; 6: 162. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00162.
[3] Di Forti M, Quattrone D, Freeman T, Tripoli G, Gayer-Anderson C, Quigley H, et al. The contribution of cannabis use to variation in the incidence of psychotic disorder across Europe (EU-GEI): A multicentre case-control study. The Lancet Psychiatry 2019; 6 (5): 427–36. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366 (19) 30048-3.
[4] Myles H, Myles N, Large M. Cannabis use in first episode psychosis: Meta-analysis of prevalence, and the time course of initiation and continued use. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2016; 50 (3): 208–19. doi: 10.1177/0004867415599846.
[5] Gage SH, Hickman M, Zammit S. Association between cannabis and psychosis: Epidemiologic evidence. Biological Psychiatry 2016; 79 (7): 549–56. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.08.001.
[6] Marconi A, Di Forti M, Lewis CM, Murray RM, Vassos E. Meta-analysis of the association between the level of cannabis use and risk of psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 2016; 42 (5): 1262–9. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbw003.
[7] Hasan A, von Keller R, Friemel CM, Hall W, Schneider M, Koethe D, et al. Cannabis use and psychosis: A review of reviews. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 2019. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1007/s00406-019-01068-z.
[8] Foster BC, Abramovici H, Harris CS. Cannabis and cannabinoids: Kinetics and interactions. The American Journal of Medicine 2019; 132 (11): 1266–70. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2019.05.017.
[9] Manza P, Shokri-Kojori E, Volkow ND. Reduced segregation between cognitive and emotional processes in cannabis dependence. Cerebral Cortex 2019. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz113.
[10] Weinstein A, Livny A, Weizman A. Brain imaging studies on the cognitive, pharmacological and neurobiological effects of cannabis in humans: Evidence from studies of adult users. Current Pharmaceutical Design 2016; 22 (42): 6366–79. doi: 10.2174/1381612822666160822151323.
[11] Blest-Hopley G, O'Neill A, Wilson R, Giampietro V, Lythgoe D, Egerton A, et al. Adolescent-onset heavy cannabis use associated with significantly reduced glial but not neuronal markers and glutamate levels in the hippocampus. Addiction Biology 2019; e12827. doi: 10.1111/adb.12827.
[12] Bertolín-Guillén JM, López-Arquero FJ, Martínez-Franco L. Cannabis-induced mania? Journal of Substance Use 2008; 13 (2): 139–41. doi: 10.1080/14659890701374661.
[13] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids: The current state of evidence and recommendations for research. Washington (DC): National Academies Press, 2017. Available in https: //www.doi.org/10.17226/24625.
[14] Sánchez-Nàcher N. Cannabis y dolor. ¿Podremos ver el bosque tras los árboles? [Cannabis and pain. Will we be able to see the wood for the trees?] Revista Española de Drogodependencias 2019; 44 (3): 5–12. Available in https: //www.aesed.com/upload/files/Editorial_Noemi.pdf.
[15] Rod K. A pilot study of a medical cannabis - opioid reduction program. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 2019; 7 (3): 74–7. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190703.14.
[16] Pacula RL, Smart R. Medical marijuana and marijuana legalization. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 2017; 13: 397–419. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045128.
[17] Alvarez-Roldán A, Gamella JF, Parra I. La legalización del cannabis: un experimento americano de consecuencias globales. [The legalization of cannabis: An American experiment with global consequences.] Revista Española de Drogodependencias 2018; 43 (4): 22–38. Available in https://www.aesed.com/upload/files/v43n4-1-cannabis-r.pdf.
[18] Fernández-Artamendi S. Deshojando la marihuana: cannabis, cannabinoides y salud mental. [Deciphering marijuana: Cannabis, cannabinoids and mental health.] Revista Española de Drogodependencias 2018; 43 (3): 5–12. Available in https://www.aesed.com/upload/files/v43n3-editorial.pdf.
[19] Borodovsky JT, Budney AJ. Cannabis regulatory science: Risk-benefit considerations for mental disorders. International Review of Psychiatry 2018; 30 (3): 183–202. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2018.1454406.
[20] Hahn B. The potential of cannabidiol treatment for cannabis users with recent-onset psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 2018; 44 (1): 46–53. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbx105.
[21] Elsaid S, Kloiber S, Le Foll B. Effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in neuropsychiatric disorders: A review of pre-clinical and clinical findings. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science 2019; 167: 25–75. doi: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2019.06.005.
[22] Udoh M, Santiago M, Devenish S, McGregor IS, Connor M. Cannabichromene is a cannabinoid CB2 receptor agonist. British Journal of Pharmacology 2019. doi: 10.1111/bph.14815 - Available in https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/11/27/435057.full.pdf.
[23] Bolla KI, Brown K, Eldreth D, Tate K, Cadet JL. Dose-related neurocognitive effects of marijuana use. Neurology 2002; 59 (9): 1337–43. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000031422.66442.49.
[24] Mouro FM, Ribeiro JA, Sebastião AM, Dawson N. Chronic, intermittent treatment with a cannabinoid receptor agonist impairs recognition memory and brain network functional connectivity. Journal of Neurochemistry 2018; 147 (1): 71–83. doi: 10.1111/jnc.14549.
[25] Volkow ND, Swanson JM, Evins AE, DeLisi LE, Meier MH, Gonzalez R, et al. Effects of cannabis use on human behavior, including cognition, motivation, and psychosis: A review. JAMA Psychiatry 2016; 73 (3): 292–7. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.3278.
[26] Jacobus J, Courtney KE, Hodgdon EA, Baca R. Cannabis and the developing brain: What does the evidence say? Birth Defects Research 2019; 111 (17): 1302-7. doi: 10.1002/bdr2.1572.
[27] Freeman TP, Lorenzetti V. 'Standard THC Units': Proposal to standardise dose across all cannabis products and methods of administration. Addiction 2019. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1111/add.14842.
[28] Piñeiro-Pérez R, Núñez-Cuadros E, Rodríguez-Marrodan B, García-Cabrera L, Manzano-Blanco S, Escrig-Fernández R, et al. Posicionamiento del Comité de Medicamentos de la Asociación Española de Pediatría en relación con el uso de medicinas alternativas y seudociencias en niños. [Position statement from the Spanish Association of Paediatrics Medicines Committee concerning the use of alternative medicine and pseudo-science in children.] Anales de Pediatría (Barcelona) 2019; 91 (4): 272.e1–272.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.anpedi.2019.04.013.
[29] Hall W, Lynskey M. Evaluating the public health impacts of legalizing recreational cannabis use in the United States. Addiction 2016; 111 (10): 1764–73. doi: 10.1111/add.13428.
[30] Flexon JL, Stolzenberg L, D'Alessio SJ. The effect of cannabis laws on opioid use. International Journal of Drug Policy 2019; 74: 152–9. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.09.013.
[31] Crépault JF. Cannabis legalization in Canada: Reflections on public health and the governance of legal psychoactive substances. Frontiers in Public Health 2018; 6: 220. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00220.
[32] Cerdá M, Mauro C, Hamilton A, Levy NS, Santaella-Tenorio J, Hasin D, et al. Association between recreational marijuana legalization in the United States and changes in marijuana use and cannabis use disorder from 2008 to 2016. JAMA Psychiatry 2019. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3254.
[33] Becoña E, Martínez U, Calafat A, Fernández-Hermida JR, Juan M, Sumnall H, et al. Parental permissiveness, control, and affect and drug use among adolescents. Psicothema 2013; 25 (3): 292–8. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2012.294.
[34] Hurd YL, Manzoni OJ, Pletnikov MV, Lee FS, Bhattacharyya S, Melis M. Cannabis and the developing brain: Insights into its long-lasting effects. The Journal of Neuroscience 2019; 39 (42): 8250–8. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1165-19.2019.
[35] Ibarra-Lecue I, Mollinedo-Gajate I, Meana JJ, Callado LF, Diez-Alarcia R, Urigüen L. Chronic cannabis promotes pro-hallucinogenic signaling of 5-HT2A receptors through Akt/mTOR pathway. Neuropsychopharmacology 2018; 43 (10): 2028–35. doi: 10.1038/s41386-018-0076.
[36] American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, DC (USA): American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
[37] World Health Organization‎. The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: Diagnostic criteria for research. Geneva (Switzerland): World Health Organization, 1993.
[38] Cervilla JA, Gutiérrez B, Rodríguez-Barranco M, Ibanez-Casas I, Pérez-García M, Valmisa E, et al. A cross-sectional study on the prevalence and risk correlates of mental disorders. The GRANADEP Study. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2018; 206 (9): 716–25. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000873.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén. (2019). Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 7(4), 153-157. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén. Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications. Am. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 2019, 7(4), 153-157. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén. Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications. Am J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2019;7(4):153-157. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20,
      author = {José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén},
      title = {Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications},
      journal = {American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience},
      volume = {7},
      number = {4},
      pages = {153-157},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajpn.20190704.20},
      abstract = {Background. It is scientifically undeniable that there is a relationship between cannabis use, psychoses of different types and other mental disorders. Frequent use of cannabis as well as high potency synthetic cannabis has special clinical significance for public health. Method. A review of the best and most current specialized literature published in order to clarify possible controversies that still persist. The aim is to resolve certain doubts so that scientifically supported criteria on the risks and dangers of cannabis use for mental health can be issued without any prejudices. Result. Cannabis is the most used illegal drug in the US and worldwide over the past year. Some authors hypothesize about interaction bias and confounding that could annul the internal validity of many studies reporting on the dangers of cannabis for mental health. They also emphasize that cannabis use should not be criminalized. This is, however, a merely speculative or unrealistic hope that disregards the wealth of scientific data that reject the authors’ aspiration according to the available evidence consulted. Conclusion. The most qualified scientific journals, in line with the main professional institutions, have been rigorously and accurately informing their readers ˗and must continue doing it˗ of the dangers and harm caused by substance use, including cannabis. In short, the issue is to try to decrease the incidence of the related mental disorders which are sufficiently acknowledged. Mental health professionals cannot and must not be neutral or ambiguous regarding cannabis use, its collective spreading and the health risks that it entails.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Controversies on the Repercussions of Cannabis Use on Mental Health: Critical Clarifications
    AU  - José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén
    Y1  - 2019/12/31
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20
    T2  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    JF  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    JO  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    SP  - 153
    EP  - 157
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-426X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190704.20
    AB  - Background. It is scientifically undeniable that there is a relationship between cannabis use, psychoses of different types and other mental disorders. Frequent use of cannabis as well as high potency synthetic cannabis has special clinical significance for public health. Method. A review of the best and most current specialized literature published in order to clarify possible controversies that still persist. The aim is to resolve certain doubts so that scientifically supported criteria on the risks and dangers of cannabis use for mental health can be issued without any prejudices. Result. Cannabis is the most used illegal drug in the US and worldwide over the past year. Some authors hypothesize about interaction bias and confounding that could annul the internal validity of many studies reporting on the dangers of cannabis for mental health. They also emphasize that cannabis use should not be criminalized. This is, however, a merely speculative or unrealistic hope that disregards the wealth of scientific data that reject the authors’ aspiration according to the available evidence consulted. Conclusion. The most qualified scientific journals, in line with the main professional institutions, have been rigorously and accurately informing their readers ˗and must continue doing it˗ of the dangers and harm caused by substance use, including cannabis. In short, the issue is to try to decrease the incidence of the related mental disorders which are sufficiently acknowledged. Mental health professionals cannot and must not be neutral or ambiguous regarding cannabis use, its collective spreading and the health risks that it entails.
    VL  - 7
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Psychiatry and Mental Health Service of Valencia-Arnau de Vilanova-Llíria Health Department, Ministry of Universal Healthcare and Public Health, Valencia, Spain

  • Sections