Friday, July 27, 2007
Pot smoking linked to psychotic disorders?
Pot smoking linked to psychotic disorders - Los Angeles Times: "The mood disorder studies were less successful in filtering outside factors, so the increased risk may be unrelated to smoking marijuana, Zammit said.
Dr. Victor Reus, a psychiatrist at UC San Francisco who was not involved in this study, said he was unconvinced by Zammit's conclusions for both psychotic and mood disorders.
Too many outside factors contribute to the disorders, and the studies Zammit used were too vague to draw hard conclusions, he said.
'There's a limit to what you can do with the data that's in these studies,' he said."
We talk all of the time about how many psychological disorders go undiagnosed, yet these researchers think that it is just the higher dose of pot. That is so misleading, and makes me wonder if they are just cozying up to the Administration in order to get their next study funded. I mean, they didn't even do a new study. These researchers used old studies to come to this conclusion, presumably having never met or talked to the subjects. They would also, I would asssume, not have had access to the psychiatrists who were examining these some 61,000 people. In fact, to be clear on this issue, they would have both needed 61,000 people who had been under psychiatric care for most of their lives and would have needed access to all of those early psychiatric healthcare providers in order to make determinations. Even that could be called into question, but it is better than this very questionable study of studies.
People who tend to enjoy large amounts of pot over many years seem to, from my experience, have other things going on. They may have other addictions, rocky pasts, or any host of other problems. That tends to be true for alcoholics, sex addicts, and meth users seemingly, for that matter. To single out the most inocuous drug makes me question these "researchers" more than the drug itself.
Dr. Victor Reus, a psychiatrist at UC San Francisco who was not involved in this study, said he was unconvinced by Zammit's conclusions for both psychotic and mood disorders.
Too many outside factors contribute to the disorders, and the studies Zammit used were too vague to draw hard conclusions, he said.
'There's a limit to what you can do with the data that's in these studies,' he said."
We talk all of the time about how many psychological disorders go undiagnosed, yet these researchers think that it is just the higher dose of pot. That is so misleading, and makes me wonder if they are just cozying up to the Administration in order to get their next study funded. I mean, they didn't even do a new study. These researchers used old studies to come to this conclusion, presumably having never met or talked to the subjects. They would also, I would asssume, not have had access to the psychiatrists who were examining these some 61,000 people. In fact, to be clear on this issue, they would have both needed 61,000 people who had been under psychiatric care for most of their lives and would have needed access to all of those early psychiatric healthcare providers in order to make determinations. Even that could be called into question, but it is better than this very questionable study of studies.
People who tend to enjoy large amounts of pot over many years seem to, from my experience, have other things going on. They may have other addictions, rocky pasts, or any host of other problems. That tends to be true for alcoholics, sex addicts, and meth users seemingly, for that matter. To single out the most inocuous drug makes me question these "researchers" more than the drug itself.
