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Smit F, Bolier L, Cuijpers P.
“Cannabis use and the risk of later schizophrenia: a review”.
Addiction. 2004;99(4):425-30.
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Abstract
AIMS: To study the role of cannabis use in the onset of symptoms and disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum.
DESIGN: Review of five population-based, longitudinal studies on the relationship between cannabis use and problems ranging from the experience of psychotic symptoms to hospitalization with a confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia. Several hypotheses are examined that may explain this relationship: (1) self-medication; (2) effects of other drugs; (3) confounding; (4) stronger effect in predisposed people, and (5) etiological hypothesis.
FINDINGS: Hypotheses 1 and 2 can be dismissed; hypothesis 3 is still open to debate, and converging evidence is found for hypotheses 4 and 5-antecedent cannabis use appears to act as a risk factor in the onset of schizophrenia, especially in vulnerable people, but also in people without prior history.
CONCLUSIONS: There is an intrinsic message here for public health, but how that message is to be translated into action is not immediately clear.
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