2009] As the stronger variants have been taking over the street

2009]. As the stronger variants have been taking over the street market, there has been a surge of interest in studying the links between cannabis

use and mental health problems. The first to draw attention to such a link was a number of epidemiological studies and reviews, which pointed towards an association between the use of cannabis and the increased risk of developing a psychotic illness, in a dose-dependent manner [Zammit et al. 2002; Arseneault et al. 2002; Moore et al 2007]. A psychotic outcome is not the only diagnostic category which has been associated with cannabis use. Symptoms of depression and anxiety commonly coexist with cannabis Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical use and lead to diagnostic dilemmas [Nunes et al. 2006; Dakwar et al. 2011]. Cannabis use can induce such symptoms, as well as be used secondary to a primary depressive illness [Dakwar Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical et al. 2011; Fairman and Anthony, 2012]. As the majority of the studies have had psychotic illness as an outcome, in this section we will mainly be focusing on this diagnostic

category. Intersubject variation in response to the psychotogenic effects of cannabis About 18.5% of people in the UK use cannabis regularly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical [Atha, 2005]. This is important as the strong THC variants of cannabis use have been increasing steeply, as have concerns on cannabis-related health risks, particularly for young people [Hall and Degenhardt, 2007; Potter et al. 2008; EMCDDA, 2011]. Recent epidemiological studies point towards a link between the use of cannabis and the development of a psychotic illness [Zammit et al. 2002; van Os et al. 2002; Arseneault et al. 2002; Henquet et al. 2005]. Further evidence comes from a systematic review of longitudinal and population-based Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical studies which show that cannabis use significantly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increases the risk of development of a psychotic illness in

a dose-dependent manner [Moore et al. 2007]. However, only a small minority develop a full-blown psychotic illness in the form of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, whilst a larger group, ranging from 15% to 50%, experience transient psychotic symptoms of brief duration, from a couple of hours to up to a week, and usually recover without requiring any intervention [Thomas, 1996; Green et al. 2003; D’Souza et al. 2004, 2009; Morrison et al. 2009]. Histone demethylase Indeed drug challenge studies with d-9-THC on healthy volunteers have shown a broad range of transient symptoms, behaviours and cognitive deficits ranging from anxiety to psychosis to transient memory disturbance [D’Souza et al. 2004; Curran et al. 2002; Morrison et al. 2009]. The clinical JAK inhibition picture of transient psychosis can be indistinguishable from a frank acute psychosis with delusions and hallucinations, except for its short duration. Evidently there is considerable variation in the effects of cannabis on individuals.

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