Proportion of schizophrenia cases tied to cannabis ‘rising’
This needs to be considered in discussions on changing regulations for use of the substance, researchers say
Cannabis use disorder-associated schizophrenia cases are on the rise, according to findings from a Danish population study.
All people in Denmark born before 2000 who were 16 years or older at some point between 1972 and 2016 – some seven million individuals split evenly between the sexes – were included in the analysis.
The primary aim was to determine whether the population-attributable risk fraction (PARF) of cannabis use disorder in schizophrenia has increased over time.
The PARF is an estimate of the proportion of schizophrenia cases that would have been prevented if no one had been exposed to cannabis use disorder, under the assumption that the association between the two might be causal, the authors explain in JAMA Psychiatry.
