[The title was written by my editor. It is misleading because the research did not thoroughly answer that question.]
Several psychological factors that contribute to the onset of short-term paranoia in marijuana users were identified in a new study.
Several psychological factors that contribute to the onset of short-term paranoia in marijuana users were identified in a new study.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
The largest study of its kind now shows that the psychoactive
ingredient in cannabis is associated with short-term paranoia in users.
Scientists also determined those cognitive mechanisms responsible for
initiating paranoia in subjects under the influence of marijuana.
Professor
Daniel Freeman and colleagues at the University of Oxford identified worrying,
poor self-esteem, anxiety, and unsettling changes in perceptions as
most-correlated factors in prompting paranoia in human subjects injected with
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient found in
marijuana.
“The study
very convincingly shows that cannabis can cause short-term paranoia in some
people,” said Professor Freeman in a statement.
“But more importantly it shines a light on the way our mind encourages
paranoia. Paranoia is likely to occur when we are worried, think negatively
about ourselves, and experience unsettling changes in our perceptions.”
Paranoia is
essentially unusually strong beliefs that others are conspiring to do one harm
to the point of irrationality and delusion. Although cannabis has long been
suspected of causing paranoia, this study marks the first conclusive link
between THC and short-term paranoia in some subjects.
The
researchers tested 121 subjects between the ages of 21 and 50, all of whom had
a history of cannabis use but no mental illness. Roughly 67 percent of the
subjects were injected with THC, while the remaining third received a placebo
injection. Among the subjects that received THC, 50 percent reported having
paranoid thoughts, compared with 30 percent of the placebo group. The paranoia
in the THC group declined as the drug cleared from their systems.
Subjects who
experienced paranoia also most commonly reported experiencing anxiety, worry,
poor mood, negative thoughts of self, echoing thoughts, changes in perceptions
of sound and color in the form of pronounced intensity, and disruptions in
perceptions of time.
The report was
published this week in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, an
Oxford University Press publication.
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