Cannabis use and life stress in recent psychoses
Poster C74, Saturday, October 22, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Sara Arranz1, Nuria Monferrer1, Alba Valiente1, Montse Solé1, Maria José Algora1, Angel Cabezas1, Javier Labad2, Elisabeth Vilella1, Vanessa Sanchez1; 1Early intervention service of psychosis. Hospital Universitari , Institut Pere Mata, Reus. CIBERSAM, 2Department of psychiatry , Hospital Parc Tauli, sabadell . CIBERSAM
Exposure to stress is linked to the development of a number of psychiatric disorders including psychosis. However, the precise role of stress in the development of psychosis and the underlying mechanisms are not well understood We aimed to study whether exposure to stress may influence cannabisabuse in subjects with recent onset psychoses. Methods: 84 subjects with recent onset psychosis (< 3years) were recruited from the outpatient Early Intervention Psychosis team in Reus, Spain and evaluated at program entry. Cannabis abuse was defined as “weekly to daily continued use of cannabis”. Perceived stress and stressful live events were assessed by means of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Holmes-Rahe social readjustment scale (HR) , respectively . Results: Cannabis abusers (51.2%) were more likely to be male and received higher doses of antipsychotic treatment than non-abusers ( 48.8%) but did not presented significant differences in symptomatology measured by PANSS Compared to non -abusers, abusersshowed morestressful life events (t= -3.8; p=.001) and more perceived stress (t= -2.3; p=.002).When controlled by gender and antipsychotic treatment ( equivalent chlorpromazine dose) in multivariate analysis only a greater score in the Holmes -Rahe scale remained significant ( (β= 009, p= .001) Conclusions: The uncertain about whether cannabis causes psychosis is unlikely to be resolved, but our findings show that first episodes who are cannabis abusers have more life stress. A relation between stress and cannabis is suggested, and stress and inflammation are also thought to play a role in the risk of developing a psychotic disorder.
Topic Area: Substance Use