Home > Are psychotic-like experiences related to a discontinuation of cannabis consumption in young adults?

Daedelow, Laura S and Banaschewski, Tobias and Berning, Moritz and Bokde, Arun L W and Brühl, Rüdiger and Burke Quinlan, Erin and Curran, H Valerie and Desrivières, Sylvane and Flor, Herta and Grigis, Antoine and Garavan, Hugh and Hardon, Anita and Kaminski, Jakob and Martinot, Jean-Luc and Paillère Martinot, Marie-Laure and Artiges, Eric and Murray, Hayley and Nees, Frauke and Oei, Nicole Y L and Papadopoulos Orfanos, Dimitri and Paus, Tomáš and Poustka, Luise and Hohmann, Sarah and Millenet, Sabina and Rosenthal, Annika and Fröhner, Juliane H and Smolka, Michael N and Walter, Henrik and Whelan, Robert and Wiers, Reinout W and Schumann, Gunter and Heinz, Andreas (2021) Are psychotic-like experiences related to a discontinuation of cannabis consumption in young adults? Schizophrenia Research, 228, pp. 271-279. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2021.01.002.

External website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...

OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in cannabis use in young adults as a function of psychotic-like experiences.

METHOD: Participants were initially recruited at age 14 in high schools for the longitudinal IMAGEN study. All measures presented here were assessed at follow-ups at age 19 and at age 22, respectively. Perceived stress was only assessed once at age 22. Ever users of cannabis (N = 552) gave qualitative and quantitative information on cannabis use and psychotic-like experiences using the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE). Of those, nearly all n = 549 reported to have experienced at least one psychotic experience of any form at age 19.

RESULTS: Mean cannabis use increased from age 19 to 22 and age of first use of cannabis was positively associated with a change in cannabis use between the two time points. Change in cannabis use was not significantly associated with psychotic-like experiences at age 19 or 22. In exploratory analysis, we observed a positive association between perceived stress and the experience of psychotic experiences at age 22.

CONCLUSION: Age of first use of cannabis influenced trajectories of young cannabis users with later onset leading to higher increase, whereas the frequency of psychotic-like experiences was not associated with a change in cannabis use. The observed association between perceived stress and psychotic-like experiences at age 22 emphasizes the importance of stress experiences in developing psychosis independent of cannabis use.


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