Schizophrenia and Cannabis

I got an email from Dana Beal recently that asked us to review an article published in the UK Guardian/Observer that stated that scientists had 'proved' that pot causes schizophrenia. I did a textual critique of the article, which is available at my personal blog. If you are on the WMM list, I hope you will see it in your next email update. http://writch.com/blog/?postid=151 But that isn't the point of this post. The point is that there is another undercurrent in the big question of the cause of schizophrenia which appears to be a valid approach. In short, the prevailing theory is that schizophrenia is caused by a problem with the dopamine receptors. Many people also consider the endocannabinoid system to be involved as well. This is apparently the root of the spurious 'pot causes schizophrenia' argument. That's the 'prevailing wisdom' at this point. I hope to show here that this 'logic' is exactly backwards, but that in spite of their approach, it is actually a VERY important point to be addressed, as it might demonstrate both an early warning system for schizophrenia, as well as a potential course of effective treatment. During the course of my write-up (actually, after I had sent it off to Dana, but was still concerned that I hadn't found a good chart of the actual rate of rise of schizophrenia in the population), I found a web site called "HUBIN.org", which is a schizophrenia study site. At that site, they had a few pages about Lars Terenius, who has an alternate theory about the cause of this disease. His theory in short is that the root cause is the 'kappa receptor' which is part of the opioid peptide system. His reason for this theory was the observation that patients who received Naloxone (Nar-Can) had decreased hallucinations. You can read more on this at: http://pvnm.com/-l_h-m_r-y I am not a medical professional, but I am a scientist, and I can use a dictionary fairly well. He says this is reproducible. A scientist should take that statement seriously. It appears (if you do a Google search) that there is a lot of work being done on this topic. However, it also appears that Naloxone doesn't work alone. It wants to be administered with neuroleptic medication (anti-psychotics like Haldol or Thorazine) to be effective. So, what does this mean for pot smokers? Will you really bring on insanity through cannabis use, a la 'Reefer Madness'? Well, we have to look first at another curious fact. A natural endocannabinoid (specifically, anandamide) is naturally and markedly higher in the blood of schizophrenics (see: http://pvnm.com/-l_h-m_h_e ) for a clinical study. How much higher? 7.79 ± 0.50 pmol/ml for schizophrenics vs. 2.58 ± 0.28 pmol/ml for normal people. That's more than double. Medicating the patients brings the 7.79 level down to 3.88 ± 0.72 pmol/ml. Obviously, the patients in question, being part of a study, weren't smoking any pot. So we know that the bodies of schizophrenics are trying to make lots of natural endocannabinoids. Why the body does this is still a mystery, but it makes clear why they would want to smoke pot compulsively. It also makes pretty clear that compulsive pot smoking is a symptom, not a cause, of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, the disease is one in which, throughout youth, the afflicted appear 'normal'. The full force of the disease doesn't normally appear until after adolescence is complete. This allows for the improper assignment of a 'cause' to what seems obviously a biological issue to me, and many reputable scientists. When I was a psych student in college, I ran across an interesting statement (in a chemistry book, actually) about the rise in schizophrenia. It was already an issue back in the seventies. The author noted that the rate of increase matched that of a genetic trait which conferred some special immunity to an external factor. The analogy he chose was sickle-cell anemia, which is deadly in it's full form, inherited from both parents, but with only one gene, instead of two, confers immunity to malaria. He then asked one of the most salient questions I think I've ever seen. He said, "What is it about this culture that makes it a human more of a viable organism if they are half-crazy?" In our church (zzco.org) we have a email group which includes two mental health professionals. We have been talking about this for a few days now, but I think that this topic needs to be brought to the mainstream for larger discussion. I suspect that what we will uncover with further study is that: 1) future schizophrenia can be diagnosed if compulsive cannabis use is demonstrated in youth. 2) the theory of the mechanism of schizophrenia will include the kappa receptor. 3) (hopeful) we will define a treatment for this disease, and the related diseases, which includes not just the dopamine and endocannabinoid receptors, but the opioid peptide receptors as well. 4) pot doesn't cause schizophrenia: it is as harmless as coffee.