Examination of the Clinical Effects of Cannabis Use in Patients with Acute Psychotic Symptoms
Project no. 21089 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2019
Summary
<p>INTRODUCTION: Cannabis is the most widely used illegal psychoactive substance worldwide. There are studies showing the risks posed by cannabis use in terms of psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia. Although there are clinical studies examining the differences between psychotic symptoms emerging after cannabis use and non-cannabis-related psychotic symptoms, data are limited in the scientific literature. Studies have shown that the cognitive functions of patients who have cannabis-related psychotic symptoms were better than those of patients who do not use cannabis. OBJECTIVE: The study has three main objectives. First, the study examines the effects of cannabis use on the content and severity of psychotic symptoms. Second, the study compares the differences in the cognitive functions of the patients who had developed psychotic symptoms after cannabis use and patients who had developed psychotic symptoms without cannabis use. Third, the study investigates the relationships between childhood trauma, psychotic symptoms, and cannabis use. METHOD: The cases with psychotic symptoms were included in the study and were divided into two groups based on their cannabis use. Patients with a history of cannabis use were identified according to their or their relatives’ statements. The sample of the study included a total of 38 individuals comprising 18 individuals with a history of cannabis use and 20 individuals with no history of cannabis use. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 axis 1 disorders (SCID-5) was employed to make the psychiatric diagnoses and identify the comorbidities of the participants. Case report forms were filled out for the sociodemographic characteristics, psychiatric history, and family history of the participants. After the first interviews, the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) were applied to examine psychotic symptoms. The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) was applied to identify the characteristics of substance abuse. The SAPS and SANS were re-applied to in-patients during their discharge and outpatients after a month to reevaluate their psychotic symptoms. The cognitive functions of the participants were evaluated using the Stroop test, the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test, and the Trail-Making Test. Childhood traumas were evaluated using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). RESULTS: A total of 38 patients comprising 18 patients with a history of cannabis use and 20 patients with no history of cannabis use were included in the study. There were significant relationships between cannabis use, living apart from family members, family history of substance abuse, and psychiatric comorbidity frequency. Negative psychotic symptoms were significantly higher in the group comprising patients who had no history of cannabis use. The negative psychotic symptoms of the patients who had no history of cannabis use changed more significantly after treatment. The age of onset of psychotic symptoms was significantly earlier in the group who used cannabis during their adolescence. There was a significant relationship between cannabis use and Stroop color-word test scores. There was a significant relationship between cannabis use during adolescence and Trail-Making B-A scores. No significant relationship was determined between the childhood traumas of the cannabis-use group and the non-cannabis-use group. Keyword: Cannabis, psychotic symptom, cognitive function</p>