Tag: poisoning

Reading of the Week: Are Mental Disorders Contagious in Teens? The New JAMA Psych Study; Also, Edibles & Older Adults, and Harmon on Discrimination

May 30, 2024 /

From the Editor

People with mental disorders often have family members who have been touched by illness – a genetic tie, well established in the literature. But what about the influence of peer groups? A small body of literature suggests a connection between social circles and diagnosis. How can we understand this? Are mental disorders contagious?

In the first selection, Jussi Alho (of the University of Helsinki) and her co-authors attempt to answer those questions in a new study for JAMA Psychiatry. They did a cohort study, drawing on Finnish databases, and involving more than 700 000 people. They considered individuals who had a classmate diagnosed with a mental disorder in grade 9. “We found an association between having peers diagnosed with a mental disorder during adolescence and an increased risk of receiving a mental disorder diagnosis later in life.” We analyze the study and its implications.

How have cannabis poisonings increased with the legalization of edibles in Canada? In the second selection, a research letter for JAMA Internal Medicine, Dr. Nathan M. Stall (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors looked at an 8-year period and focused on older adults, finding 2 322 ED visits in Ontario. “The largest increases occurred after edible cannabis became legally available for retail sale, a phenomenon similarly observed in Canadian children.”

And in the third selection, Caroline Payton Harmon, who is a PhD candidate at Rutgers University, describes the people she met in substance use treatment. The essay, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, is personal and notes the contrasts between those of different socioeconomic backgrounds. “The health-care system sees money and sees patients who are not worth the cost of treatment.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Cannabis Potency & Mental Health – the New Lancet Psych Paper; Also, Legalization & Poisonings (NEJM) and Nicholson on Her Son (CBC)

September 8, 2022 /

From the Editor

“In the USA and Europe, the concentration of THC has more than doubled over the past 10 years…”

So notes a new paper in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Canada legalized cannabis for recreational purposes four years ago; other countries have done the same, as have almost two dozen US states. But how has cannabis itself changed over time? What are the implications for mental health disorders? And public policy? In the first selection, quoted above, Kat Petrilli (of the University of Bath) and her co-authors do a systematic review of cannabis potency and mental health and attempt to answer these questions. Drawing on 20 studies, they find: “Overall, the evidence suggests that the use of higher potency cannabis, compared with lower potency cannabis, is associated with an increased risk of psychosis, and this risk is higher in people who use cannabis daily.” We look at the paper and weigh its clinical implications.

In the second selection, using Ontario data, Dr. Daniel T. Myran (of the University of Ottawa) and his co-authors consider the effect of edible cannabis legalization on poisonings of children. Writing for The New England Journal of Medicine, they compare jurisdictions with legal sales (Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario) with a province that hasn’t legalized that form of cannabis (Quebec). “Our data indicate that legalization was associated with marked increases in hospitalizations for cannabis poisoning in children.”

And, in the third selection, Shirley Nicholson writes about substance and stigma with a deeply personal essay. In this piece for CBC First Person, she discusses her son’s struggles and his death from an overdose. She writes: “He didn’t plan to die at 27. He was more than his addictions. He was our son, our brother, our grandson, our nephew, our cousin and we all loved him so.”

DG

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