London, March 03: The youth who use cannabis are not only more likely to show psychotic symptoms but are also at significantly higher risk of developing psychotic disorder later in life.
Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the world, particularly among adolescents while an increasing number of findings are showing strong association between pot and psychotic disorders.
A 10-year study of more than 1,900 adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 24 years, showed European researchers that youngsters who started smoking the drug at college age were 90 per cent more likely to have psychotic symptoms in their mid-20s.
This new study strongly suggests that despite some doubts, cannabis use in the first place can cause problems such as continuous hallucinations which could have not been triggered otherwise, researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal.
Moreover, mental problems persist among individuals who continue using pot, compared with those who stop, wrote researchers led by Jim van Os from Maastricht University.
Previous findings have also showed that a quarter of the people have a genetic predisposition which makes them ten times more likely to develop psychosis and other schizophrenia-like symptoms after smoking cannabis.
Experts warn that anyone with a pre-existing mental health problem or a family history is at a higher risk of developing mental illness after using pot.
——-Agencies