Dr. Patricia Halligan and Dr. Laurence Westreich discuss the dangers of cannabis use, especially in the adolescent brain:
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Patricia Halligan:
So, what are the dangers of cannabis use?
Dr. Laurence Westreich:
The dangers, especially in the population that you're describing right there is that heavy, long term use has cleared neuropsychological damage that it does to the adolescent brain. So someone's achievement is likely going to be degraded by heavy, early use of THC. That being said, even kids who use relatively less can still have impairment in their academic function because of the use of the THC, even if it's just acute use, even if they miss a few classes or they're not as effective as they would be. And I see this often in younger people starting out their careers, where you see that the trajectory of their career has not taken them where you would expect their level of intelligence and education should take them. And sometimes people recognize that and they realize that the marijuana they've been using has degraded their performance by 10, 15, 20%, which still allows them to succeed at work, but takes them off that early trajectory that would've led them to better achievement in their employment or better achievement in education, or frankly, better achievement in relationships. So it's very potent in the patient's you and I see.
Dr. Patricia Halligan:
And what about the potential loss of IQ points? If you're a marijuana user under, especially under the age of 16, like an early initiator. I remember a study way back. I think it was a New Zealand study of a thousand kids, and I think it was up to eight IQ points they could lose, right?
Dr. Laurence Westreich:
Yes. I, I think the data are very clear that early heavy use of marijuana is detrimental to neuropsychological functioning going forward, including memory, including executive function, including all the parameters that were used to succeed in the world. So that is disastrous and the prevention people are very clear that the child who starts smoking and drinking too at the age of 12 or 13 is much, much worse off than the late adolescent who starts drinking when he or she is 17, 18, 19. In addition to the fact that they have better judgment at that age, the brain function — the brain morphology — has improved to the point that they're less likely to be damaged at the older ages. I would say anyone below the age of 24 or 25 with smokes marijuana regularly is taking a big chance with their neuropsychological functioning going forward.
Dr. Laurence Westreich Bio:
Laurence M. Westreich, M.D. is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of patients diagnosed with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs).
Dr. Westreich completed a residency in Psychiatry at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center and a two-year fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital. He is board–certified in general psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry.
Dr. Westreich is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, and the author of Helping the Addict you Love (Simon and Schuster, 2007), and A Parent’s Guide to Teen Addiction (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017). Dr. Westreich is Past President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and serves as Consultant on Behavioral Health and Addiction to the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
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