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.
I used to smoke a lot of weed in high school and after for a bit. One day, the panic set in. It wasn’t always, but the frequency definitely increased slowly, until eventually the risk of having a panic sesh became too much for me to be able to enjoy smoking.
Kind of unrelated and in the middle of all this, I remember talking to my old man, and he had lived a similar life to the one I was, at the time, currently leaving. He smoked a bunch of weed until, one day, couldn’t do it any longer because of the panicks.
So I definitely anecodotally agree with the ineritableness, and I certainly agree and am an example of the idea that cannabis can bring out symptoms similar to schizophrenic episodes. And they are so far from my norm that I really can’t attribute it to anything but the pots.
I’ve always felt that mental disorders can be like a switch, you flip it and it turns on, kinda. And the flipping can be the result of something external, life events, trauma, and drug and alcohol use. I had a friend who I smoked with often as a kid who eventually kinda disappeared into a world of mental issues, and I wonder if it would’ve been the same had he not smoked.