Oral Cannabis Induces Short-Term Psychosis
By Neil Osterweil , MedPage Today Staff Writer
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, March 31-Even if you don't inhale, the active ingredient in marijuana can induce acute but short-term psychotic reactions, report researchers studying the effects of synthetic cannabis here.
After taking a medication containing 20 mg of Marinol (dronabinol), one subject in the study, a 22-year-old medical student and once-weekly pot smoker, "started to laugh a lot and after 90 minutes, he manifested a severe anxiety with symptoms of derealization and depersonalization." Nearly 6 hours later, the subject was still unable to complete a test consisting of road-sign recognition speed and accuracy.
The second subject, also a 22-year-old medical student and "weed" user (twice monthly), experienced delusional paranoia and severe anxiety within an hour of swallowing a 16.5 mg THC preparation.
The volunteer "became suspicious during the experiment. He thought the investigators were concealing some problems. He was unable to perform the psychometric tests…at the 1 hour and 2.5 hours post-ingestion series of tests. These effects persisted up to 4 hours after ingestion and weakened over the next 3 hours. The feeling was very unpleasant in comparison with that experienced after his usual smoking cannabis consumption," the investigators write.
The obvious conclusion I draw from this study is that marinol sucks. But unfortunately it is producing headlines such as these.
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, March 31-Even if you don't inhale, the active ingredient in marijuana can induce acute but short-term psychotic reactions, report researchers studying the effects of synthetic cannabis here.
After taking a medication containing 20 mg of Marinol (dronabinol), one subject in the study, a 22-year-old medical student and once-weekly pot smoker, "started to laugh a lot and after 90 minutes, he manifested a severe anxiety with symptoms of derealization and depersonalization." Nearly 6 hours later, the subject was still unable to complete a test consisting of road-sign recognition speed and accuracy.
The second subject, also a 22-year-old medical student and "weed" user (twice monthly), experienced delusional paranoia and severe anxiety within an hour of swallowing a 16.5 mg THC preparation.
The volunteer "became suspicious during the experiment. He thought the investigators were concealing some problems. He was unable to perform the psychometric tests…at the 1 hour and 2.5 hours post-ingestion series of tests. These effects persisted up to 4 hours after ingestion and weakened over the next 3 hours. The feeling was very unpleasant in comparison with that experienced after his usual smoking cannabis consumption," the investigators write.
The obvious conclusion I draw from this study is that marinol sucks. But unfortunately it is producing headlines such as these.
posted by Loretta Nall at
2:47 AM
1 Comments:
The mere suggestion of a link is not sufficient grounds for the assumption that there is any link at all.
Millennia of empirical and experiential evidence shows continued use of cannabis, and other psychoactive plants, throughout evolution and across every civilisation and culture known to man, without harm to self, or others.
If there is to be a discussion about cannabis and psychosis, let it at least involve tests of cannabis, not the synthetic alternatives the pharmaceutical industry will be so desperate to sell us once they manage to synthesise a profitable alternative to that which nature already provides.
Ant.
Anything that defies my sense of reason....
The Cannabis Psychosis Myth Explosion #1
The Cannabis Psychosis Myth Explosion #2
By
The Antagonist, at 4:15 PM
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