Scientists have long sought to shed light on the link between cannabis use and psychosis. Now, a gene known as AKT1 is seen to affect a cannabis user’s susceptibility to developing this mental disorder.
Researchers in the United Kingdom showed for the first time that this gene interferes in healthy persons’ acute response to cannabis, making AKT1 potentially helpful in predicting how prone one is to the drug’s mind-altering impact.
“These findings are the first to demonstrate that people with this AKT1 genotype are far more likely to experience strong effects from smoking cannabis, even if they are otherwise healthy,” says University of Exeter and study author Celia Morgan.
The team from University of Exeter and University College London discovered that young people with an AKT1 gene variation – compared with those without the variation – had stronger visual distortions, paranoia and other psychosis-related symptoms when they were under the influence of cannabis.
About 1 percent of cannabis users eventually develop psychosis – a seemingly low rate, yet with long-term, devastating effects given that it is difficult to find out who is most at-risk for the disorder.
Morgan explained that people could develop psychosis when subjected to a repeatedly paranoid or psychotic state, whether self-induced or not.
“Although cannabis-induced psychosis is very rare, when it happens it can have a terrible impact on the lives of young people,” she warns.
The researchers analyzed 442 young cannabis users, testing them both while sober and under the substance’s influence. They measured the intoxication signs’ extent along with memory loss effects, comparing the results a week later when the subjects were drug-free.
In addition, females were found more susceptible than males to short-term memory impairment after cannabis use.
Animal studies have previously indicated that men have more of the receptors cannabis is working on in the prefrontal cortex and other brain sections that are crucial for short-term memory. Morgan sees the need for further research in this area.
The findings – published in the journal Translational Psychiatry – are hoped to identify individuals who are most at-risk for the adverse effects of smoking cannabis, as well as to help develop genotype-targeted drugs.
Psychosis is a broad range of mental disorders covering schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis, and schizoaffective disorder. A team of researchers from the University of Georgia in the U.S. previously experimented using neurobiological markers instead of symptoms in helping improve existing classification methods for the condition.
The authors noted that while there is still quite a road ahead in using new measures for mental diagnostics or evaluating the efficacy of psychosis drugs, professionals should go beyond focusing on clinical symptoms alone.
Photo: Rafael Castillo | Flickr
