This week marks the publication of one of the largest longitudinal studies to examine cannabis use in adolescence and its association with the development of psychiatric disorders into young adulthood.
Utilising health data from over 460,000 individuals, the authors found that adolescent cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of multiple psychiatric disorders by early adulthood, particularly for psychotic and bipolar disorders.
As an organisation that is committed to ensuring effective, compassionate support is available to individuals living with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar, we wholeheartedly support the authors’ suggestion that these results could inform the development of clinical and educational interventions for parents, adolescents, and clinicians. We also hope to see protective policies in place in the future to prevent or delay adolescent cannabis use, particularly given the growing prevalence of cannabis legalisation across the world.
We are eager to explore this issue in further detail and aim to investigate through additional research of our own in the coming months.
