If you’ve got depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia in your family, you’re more likely to use cannabis, a new study has found.
Scientists have studied the DNA of more than 180,000 people around the world and found we inherit the likelihood of using cannabis.
“Cannabis itself can be harmless but around one out of ten recreational users will become addicted to cannabis,” researcher Professor Eske Derks from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute told Hack.
“We found 35 genes which make it more likely for people to use cannabis.
Those genes also cause alcohol and tobacco dependency, bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism and depression.
So if you’ve got any of those things in your family, you’re more likely to use cannabis too.
“Cannabis is a widely used psychoactive substance and its use is associated with various adverse mental health outcomes, including psychosis and schizophrenia,” the study said.
“Successful prevention intervention efforts aimed at reducing cannabis use and misuse… require a better understanding of why some people use cannabis whereas others do not.”
This is the largest analysis of genetics for lifetime cannabis use so far, according to the study.
If you have schizophrenia in your family, scientists advise against using cannabis
The study particularly focused on schizophrenia because although previous research has found there’s a link with people who have the illness and cannabis use, it’s unclear which one influences the other.
Professor Derks said this study has revealed that schizophrenia genes cause people to smoke cannabis.
“Before the disease is really obvious, there are symptoms before that and that’s when people start using cannabis to deal with the problems they have,” Professor Derks said.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that cannabis causes or exacerbates schizophrenia, we didn’t find any evidence for that but it could work both ways.
Professor Derks said it’s believed people with symptoms of schizophrenia – like hearing voices or seeing things – use cannabis to reduce their anxiety.
“The hypothesis is that if people have difficulties like hallucinations… it can be really scary if you start seeing things that aren’t there,” she said.
“People start using cannabis to reduce the anxiety.”
Credit: www.abc.net.au
