cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Abuse May Up Risk of Depression










  Marijuana Abuse May Up Risk of Depression

Posted by FoM on December 03, 2001 at 07:59:30 PT
By Suzanne Rostler 
Source: Reuters  

Adults who abuse marijuana may be putting themselves at risk for depression, results of a new study indicate. According to the report, adults who were not depressed when the study began but who abused marijuana were about four times more likely to report symptoms of depression 15 years later, compared with their non-smoking peers. These adults were especially likely to have had suicidal thoughts and report a lack of interest in things that once held their interest, Dr. Gregory B. Bovasso reports in the December issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. 
Pot smokers were four times more likely than their non-smoking peers to have suicidal thoughts, and white women were found to be at particular risk.In the study, marijuana abuse was defined by various signs of problem pot use, such as impaired work performance or using the drug on the job.Individuals who used other drugs such as amphetamines and opioids were about 8 to 10 times more likely to be abusing pot 15 years later. However, those who were depressed when the study began were no more likely to abuse marijuana later on, according to the report, which followed nearly 850 adults who were not depressed and more than 1,800 who did not report marijuana abuse at the study's start.In an interview with Reuters Health, Bovasso suggested that future studies investigate how excessive pot-smoking leads to a higher risk of depression, examine why adults abuse marijuana and establish how much pot is enough to put people at risk of becoming depressed.In the meantime, the findings ``underscore the importance of cannabis abuse prevention rather than treatment,'' because they highlight new cases of depression arising among marijuana abusers, the report concludes.``Treatments or other interventions that prevent the abuse of cannabis from occurring in the first place are important,'' Bovasso said. ``On a general policy level, marijuana...may not be as harmless as many believe.''SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry 2001;158:2033-2037. Source: ReutersAuthor: Suzanne RostlerPublished: Monday, December 3, 2001Copyright: 2001 Reuters LimitedRelated Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml

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Comment #23 posted by prudy on December 06, 2001 at 09:22:08 PT:
depression and MARIJUANA
"You are my sunshine,my only sunshine.You make me happy when skies are grey.You'll never know,JANE,how much I love you,please don't take my sunshine away!"Now does this sound like someone who is depressed?Depression sets in when I can't find JANE anywhere and when I have people all up in my business.Such as government flunkies that smoke and don't inhale!I have been smoking for 28 years and I have never killed anyone.I function just fine,thank you!As a matter-of-fact,JANE has probably kept me from killing somebody.I don't drink or pop pills,but Jane is my favorite pass time and I will continue to smoke "till the cows come home"!MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
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Comment #22 posted by isobar on December 04, 2001 at 17:27:06 PT:
another educated know nothing
When are we going to learn that these people only have one agenda. That is to keep Marajuana illegal. This is another attempt to confuse people of the real facts for including Marajuna in the drug war.
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Comment #21 posted by goneposthole on December 04, 2001 at 13:34:13 PT
incorrect spelling
Sometimes I misspell purposely, however the word neoplasm was misspelled.A neoplasm is a tumor.
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Comment #20 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on December 04, 2001 at 10:46:39 PT:
Depression and Pot, What's Next?
I agree that marijuana and depression are linked. 
Everytime I hear or see a marijuana eradication helicopter I immediately feel anxiety and depression. Everytime the police show up and steal my legal plants or kick and kill my dog or arrest me while I am registered, twice as a legal cultivator and user.... I feel depressed. Everytime I see what law enforcement does in denial of our medical, religious and privacy rights, I get depressed. 
But the good news is. I roll up a phatty, take a deep hit, and blow it away. All the BS that is. Find your niche and make it legal. I did! Happy Holidays and Peace to all!
Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute 
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Comment #19 posted by goneposthole on December 04, 2001 at 06:33:41 PT
Mr. Bovasso and Sigmund Freud
Frued studied people who were abnormal. It has been more than twenty years since I have read any or his writings, there is a lot of rust on the limited knowledge that I have. I remember reading about one example of a man that he (Freud) used as a case study who had sold his soul to the devil. Must have been one of Mr. Bovasso's long lost relatives.We have been able to improve ( I will add a question mark here) the ecological to a great extent, but not the physiological. The graph of time versus the number of incidents of diptheria, typhus, and tuberculosis decreases in a downward j-curve with the introduction of life saving drugs and immunizations, thus our 'ecological' lives have improved. Conversely, the number of incidents of malignant neoplams has an upward j-curve, probably due to the greater number of people surviving because plagues of the former have become less of a problem. Our physiological lives have not sustained great benefit by ecological improvements other than more of us living longer to cope. Thankfully, marijuana has been helping to alleviate the problems of coping. "Don't bother me, I can't cope."All this pales in comparison to the plague of ignorance we so abhorrently endure. That j-curve goes
straight up from a tiny little hook.
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Comment #18 posted by E_Johnson on December 04, 2001 at 01:41:21 PT
The politics of psychiatry might be on our side
If I have hunted down my Bovassos correctly on the web, Gregory Bovasso seems to be one of these PoMo critical theory types who flaunt their contempt for science and medication to the point that working psychiatrists with patients in clinical practice just end up hating them -- and discrediting everything they say.To call medication shamanistic in these days of stunning scientific breakthroughs helping seriously mentally ill people maintain daily lives with some semblance of normalcy -- I'll bet he's not taken all that seriously by his peers.
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Comment #17 posted by dddd on December 04, 2001 at 01:29:56 PT
Right On EJ
"As far as I have experienced it, the most depressing thing about chronic marijuana use has to be the feeling that society for some
      reason has now appointed you as The Enemy, in the face of everything and anything else you may have done to be a good and
      productive citizen and bring the world up instead of down."Well said EJ....It is indeed depressing to have to hide,and lurk in the underground,,,,and if one gets busted, having to live as a second-class citizen,,,,........beyond strange...dddd
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Comment #16 posted by E_Johnson on December 04, 2001 at 01:23:25 PT
Bovasso is a right hateful little prick, look
Check out this ssentence if you will, what he says about the future of his field: Its value may lie not in curing the masses, for whom behaviorist animal training and medication will do. ANIMAL training?This man obviously hates the so-called masses. He has open contempt for the people he is supposed to be helping. However, Freuds' attempt at creating a philosophic system of critical self reflection is the foundation of Western philosophy.Freud -- the foundation of Western philosophy?He left a lot of his own patients adrift too.What kind of frauds exist in this profession who can write articles that sound like they are concerned about patients, then write this crap that shows that they REALLY think of their patients as a bunch of dumb animals who just need the right trainer?
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Comment #15 posted by E_Johnson on December 04, 2001 at 01:14:13 PT
The ultimate Fruedian castration complex
If there's one thing I know, you'll never catch a believer in Freud growing good marijuana. Separating out the males would be far too traumatic for them to cope with.
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Comment #14 posted by E_Johnson on December 04, 2001 at 01:09:51 PT
How obvious is it that a Freudian hates marijuana
After all, the kind bud has no penis, so how can it exist?
 
To a Freudian, everything that exists must either have a penis, or dream of nothing but having one.Marijuana is a a Freudian NIGHTMARE -- a potent virgin womb with no hysterical symptoms of lacking a penis to be found.
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Comment #13 posted by E_Johnson on December 04, 2001 at 01:04:50 PT
Bovasso is an anti-medication Freudian elitist
Here is something wortten by Bovasso:
http://www.human-nature.com/freud/gbovas.htmlThe guy's an anti-science guy, how amazing that he stoops to the lows of empiricial research anyway: In the final analysis, psychiatrists are trading in psychoanalysis for pharmaceuticals the way a shaman trades in one ghost for another to effect a cure. From a purely technical standpoint, psychoanalysis may be obsolete. Its value may lie not in curing the masses, for whom behaviorist animal training and medication will do. However, Freuds' attempt at creating a philosophic system of critical self reflection is the foundation of Western philosophy. In this sense, I am not sure it is really 'modern', anymore than the technological fetishism which passes for science is much of an improvement on magical manipulations. In my research I have found that the medications used by 'modern' psychiatry are not substantially different from those used by shamans. Their use can be rationalized equally well by biological reductionism, psychoanalysis or evil spirits. Knowing the mechanisms by which drugs act (which passes for science) does nothing to effect a cure, or even a humane treatment, much less provide knowledge. In the final analysis, psychiatry and medicine in general is simply not scientific, and is not in a position to make statements about what is scientific. In fact, the decision process used by a psychiatrist to prescribe medication is grossly unscientific; their trial and error 'experiments' in prescribing drugs for individual cases are much less scientific than the hypothetico-deductive reasoning which a psychoanalyst may use. As for the biological understanding of the human being, what value does it really provide apart from the creation of biotechnology, which any other belief system also provides. Perhaps less, and that is an empirical question. 
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Comment #12 posted by krutch on December 03, 2001 at 15:27:50 PT:
Data Mining
Fasinating,This study is a great example of data mining."In the study, marijuana abuse was defined by various signs of problem pot use, such as impaired work performance or using the drug on the job."So we isolate the so called MJ abusers, who also happen to be losers who let their drug use interfere with the rest of their life. Low and behold we find that they are depressed. What a surpise! What about the people in the study that used MJ regularly but did not have these signs of abuse? Where they depressed?Now I read Dr. Russo's review and find out only 15 out of the orginal 850 subjects were classified as abusers. So this means that only about 4 of the non-MJ using subjects reported any symptoms of depression. So, out of 850 people, only 19 of them total reported being depressed. This seems low to me. The study sounds like witchcraft(no offense meant to the Pagean reader).One would have to be comatose not to have some symptoms of depression in the opressive and miserable world we live in. 
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on December 03, 2001 at 14:02:48 PT:
The obvious counterproposal
How many people presently suffering from clinically diagnosed depression might be helped with cannabis? A very dangerous question, that. Especially in light of the fact that astoundingly few to none violent criminal acts are performed while under the influence. I recall a few years back the case of a policeman who was given the anti-depressant Lithium, and he killed several people due to dementia caused by the drug. The worst behavior that I have observed related to cannabis intoxication is unrepressed hilarity and a marked tendency to do serious damage to refrigerated leftovers.Having had to work with co-workers under the influence of Prozac in the past (and it would have been damn' nice if my supervisors had warned me beforehand!) and ppl on cannabis, I know whose company I'd prefer. 
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Comment #10 posted by mayan on December 03, 2001 at 12:33:25 PT
Ignorance Is Bliss
Along the lines of what EJ said, marijuana opens your eyes to the injustices of the world. How can you not feel somewhat depressed knowing what we know? Igorance is bliss! But as Kap'n has said before regarding an unrelated topic, "Ignorance is death"! 
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on December 03, 2001 at 12:15:26 PT
Pot relieves emotional numbing, that's why
I went for years in a functionally depressed (and drug free) state without feeling consciously depressed at all -- because I was severely chronically post-traumatic and afflicted with the emotional numbing that is a major component of chronic PTSD.Now that I use marijuana as part of my therapy, I can feel my emotional states, and I know if and when I am feeling depressed or happy. And I also know why and can work through it in therapy.Before I used marijuana, I presented an acceptable face to society of someone numbed to the abuse I was taking from the situation I was in.Now that I can correctly perceive my own emotional state, I can respond appropriately to it.One definite challenge that I face is the depressing abuses of power in the war against marijuana. These abuses of power are precesely the kinds of abuses that would induce depression in someone with a history of fighting abuse by someone more powerful.We have a war here folks, and it's partly a war of misperception. Some deliberate and some accidental.One question I do have though is -- what is the effect of marijuana on someone who does not suffer from emotional numbing?Relieving emotional numbing is not all sunshine and light. I had a childhood that was very angering and relieving emotional numbing relieves the blocks against that anger so that it can be externally expressed instead of internalized into the body.As far as I have experienced it, the most depressing thing about chronic marijuana use has to be the feeling that society for some reason has now appointed you as The Enemy, in the face of everything and anything else you may have done to be a good and productive citizen and bring the world up instead of down.Why should that reality make anyone happy? It's wrong! It's unjust!And experiencing injustice does make people depressed. that's for sure. Injustice and abuse of power are what cause a lot of mental illness in our society. Parents abusing their power over children -- how much depression, anxiety and personality disorders does that cause? Companies or management personae abusing their power over workers -- now proven to be a major source of damage to the physical and mental health, and marital stability of workers.Smoke some weed and notice how less tolerant you become of injustice, how much more you feel that abuse of power is something that needs to be contested. That's the sign of socially-induced emotional numbing being relieved.Perhaps that explains marijuana prohibition and the whole system set up to support it.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on December 03, 2001 at 11:50:52 PT
goneposthole 
No apologizes necessary. I am glad I am helping. I'll keep doing the best I can as long as I am able. Thank you too!
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Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on December 03, 2001 at 11:19:52 PT
Everything is depressing...
except for marijuana. The only bright spot on the planet.Leave people alone, for God's sake.What is really depressing is the overconsumption of alcohol
.
What is really depressing is the number of young people who are hooked on cigarettes.Those two substances cause untold misery and depression.In order for them to get real they need to be told what reality is. They have no clue.The money received for a study like this keeps them clueless and the only reason for the motivation to conduct such a study.If they only knew, smoking a bowl would kick them out of their own amotivational sydrome, get off of their asses and join the legalization movement. Do that and they will be doing something.The dumb asses. Sorry FoM. Maybe not president, but you are beginning to lead the world out of this abyssmal depression, thank you. The government has placed us between a rock and a hard place.What morons they have become. More depressing than anything, it is. 
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Comment #6 posted by Sam Adams on December 03, 2001 at 10:47:56 PT
This one had me laughing out loud.....
Look at this!"Pot smokers were four times more likely than their non-smoking peers to have suicidal thoughts, and white women were found to be at particular risk."In the words of Ronnie Reagan, "there you go again!". I'm a sucker for nostalgia.....this is a blast from the past! "Marihuana girl" right outta Reefer Madness. The white women, the most cherished and innocent jewel of America, ruthlessly corrupted into slavering drones, slashing their wrists and plunging off buildings from smoking the Weed of the Devil! Now playing at a theater near you, with Reuters filling in nicely for the Hearst Syndicate.Cannabis produces euphoria...it's an anti-depressant! Of course depressed people are going to seek it out and use it more! It's like saying, people that were on Prozac and Zoloft during the last 10 years are more likely to be depressed than non-users. People that use to drink water are 5 times more likely to be thirsty! WTF!
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 03, 2001 at 10:14:45 PT
Handbook of Psychotropic Herbs 
I made this little page so people can learn about Dr. Russo's Book. I have the book and it has been very helpful. Just a plug for our in house Doc!http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/ermd.htm
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Comment #4 posted by Patrick on December 03, 2001 at 09:51:49 PT

Study?
Yeah another study that points out some negative aspects. Thanks for pointing out the study's flaw Ethan! The feds constantly point to studies of mj that are negative like this one and say we can't legalize it because there is not enough study. Funny that this study says it leads to depression and of course we all know how the establishment treats depression...ie. Prozac, Zoloft, Ritalin etc. and other profitable chemicals. That makes me wonder about the motives of Drug Free America groups??? Drug Free huh? Seems to me americans are downing more pills than the rest of the world combined. What irony. Drug Free American Society my  ss! I agree FoM, the current state of affairs regarding the DEA,s war on MJ is depressing. Otherwise, I am a pretty happy individual considering the fact that our country is at war.
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Comment #3 posted by Ken on December 03, 2001 at 09:42:54 PT:

Thanks, Ethan
I'm so glad you're here to review these studies. What a lot of bull.
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Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on December 03, 2001 at 08:39:18 PT:

Yawn
This "study" is available online:http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/158/12/2033.pdfTake a look for yourself. They started out with a large cohort of patients, and ended up with only 15 characterized as "marijuana abusers, " which is never specifically defined except by association. Epidemiological studies of this type can only identify trends, but not causation. The amotivational syndrome is dredged up once again. It's sort of like the villain in all those horror movie series. You think it's really dead and buried, but there's always another sequel because it serves someone's pecuniary interest. For a good discussion, see Zimmer and Morgan, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts.For use of cannabis in psychiatric conditions, see Russo, E. Handbook of Psychotropic Herbs, 2001. 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 03, 2001 at 08:15:58 PT

Depression and Marijuana
I agree people can get depressed that use marijuana and here are a few reasons why in my opinion.1 - The cost can cause financial problems.
2 - Fear of going to JAIL.
3 - Fear of having your home taken from you.
4 - Having to deal with people to get marijuana that you wouldn't associate with if it was legal.
5 - People don't like to be considered a criminal and that is depressing.I'm sure there's more reasons but these are the ones I thought of off the top of my head.
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