February 7th, 2011 05:56 PM ET Using marijuana, or cannabis, may
cause psychosis to develop sooner in patients already
predisposed to developing it, and in other patients the drug may
even cause psychosis, according to a new study published in the
Archives of General Psychiatry. "This finding is an important
breakthrough in our understanding of the relationship between
cannabis use and psychosis," according to the study. "It raises
the question of whether those substance users would still have
gone on to develop psychosis a few years later." Patients with
psychosis tend to lose touch with reality and are prone to
hallucinations and delusions about what is happening around
them. Psychosis is frequently reported among patients with
diagnosed mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder. According to the study led by Australian researchers,
in which data from 83 studies involving more than 20,000
patients were analyzed, marijuana users experienced psychosis
about three years younger than non-users.