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Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance useSchizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders
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Epidemiological and experimental evidence implicates cannabis use as a risk factor for psychotic disorder, which in England has an annual cost of £12 billion. My team work has demonstrated a) that the greatest risk is from daily use of potent cannabis, high in Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and low in Cannabidiol (CBD). However, only a minority of cannabis users develop psychotic disorder, and it is unclear what makes some particularly susceptible. This is a question of global importance given that 200 million people use cannabis daily, and the spread of laws legalising cannabis for medicinal or recreational use. I work one day per week as a Consultant Psychiatrist treating young people suffering their first episode of psychosis, and have established a specialized Psychosis Clinic for cessation/reduction of cannabis use.
Here, we propose to study psychotic disorder and in particular paranoia which is a) one of the most frequent symptoms in psychotic disorder and b) especially prominent in patients who use cannabis, and in volunteers administered THC.
Bringing together the recent advances in psychiatric genetics and epigenetics with new technology like Virtual Reality, this study aims to ascertain 1)the impact of heavy cannabis use on mental health in a non-clinical population and 2)genetic and epigenetic markers that explain differences in individual susceptibility to develop paranoia among heavy cannabis users, with or without a diagnosis of psychotic disorder.
The Schizophrenia Commission pointed out that cannabis use is the most preventable cause of psychotic disorder. My proposal will facilitate understanding the neurobiology of psychosis and paranoia in the context of daily cannabis use, advance knowledge on the effects of the latter on mental health short of formal psychotic disorder, and identify young adults for whom recreational/medicinal cannabis use carries special risk.
Start dates may differ between countries and research sites. The research team are responsible for keeping the information up-to-date.
The recruitment start and end dates are as follows:
Observational type: Case-controlled study;
You can take part if:
You may not be able to take part if:
1. Non clinical-sample(study 1&2): Previous diagnosis or treatment for psychotic disorder 2.Clinical sample (study 3): a)Poor understanding of English (requiring an interpreter) b) taking already part in another research project
Below are the locations for where you can take part in the trial. Please note that not all sites may be open.
The study is sponsored by King's College London and funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) .
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Read full details
for Trial ID: CPMS 50345
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