Benefits of drug use (schizophrenia edition)

October 5, 2022 10:45 AM

I am looking for information as to the benefits of the use of any currently illegal drug (incl. cannabis) particularly for persons diagnosed with schizophrenia or similar illness (studies or anecdotal data welcome)

I am very well informed regarding the risks of drug use, particularly for those diagnosed with mental health conditions, but I am curious as to what the current consensus is as to potential benefit. I know that there are a lot of studies out nowadays regarding the beneficial effects of drugs such as cannabis and magic mushrooms. (I have seen some of them on here.)

A friend of mine thinks there were studies way back when into the use of drugs such as lsd to treat or manage schizophrenia, is this correct?

I am an experienced drug user and would be utilizing harm reduction techniques such as low doses and an appropriate set and setting.
Bonus points for information on interactions with Abilify.

posted by anonymous to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Cannabis is associated with aggravating Schizophrenia (and can lead to earlier age of onset);

Nicotine is associated with helping Schizophrenia, so much so that researchers are looking into whether they can turn the helpful chemical into a medication. Because of the lung cancer risk, you're much better off with nicotine gum or with nicotine patches. Taking up smoking or vaping is a bad idea because of lung cancer and other associated lung problems.

The Role of Nicotine in Schizophrenia:

"Schizophrenia is associated with by severe disruptions in thought, cognition, emotion, and behavior. Patients show a marked increase in rates of smoking and nicotine dependence relative to nonaffected individuals, a finding commonly ascribed to the potential ameliorative effects of nicotine on symptom severity and cognitive impairment. Indeed, many studies have demonstrated improvement in patients following the administration of nicotine. Such findings have led to an increased emphasis on the development of therapeutic agents to target the nicotinic system as well as increasing the impetus to understand the genetic basis for nicotinic dysfunction in schizophrenia."
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:11 AM on October 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

You can research more on the nicotine angle by searching on sensory gating in schizophrenia. The short version with all the nuance sawed off is that sensory systems in people with schizophrenia don't filter information correctly, which contributes to a lot of the cognitive symptoms. Nicotine acts on certain receptors which corrects this problem with filtering information.

My understanding is that the effects of a cigarette for people with schizophrenia on sensory gating only last about 30 minutes, which is why it's not a recommended treatment and why researchers are looking for more effective treatments. But many schizophrenic people are chain smokers for this reason.

I don't know the research on nicotine patches so can't specifically recommend or disrecommend them, but adding "sensory gating" to your search may bring up more information.
posted by brook horse at 11:27 AM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

My mom lost a friend with schizophrenia in the early 70s. The friend had done LSD for the first time with a larger friend group and thought she could fly, walked off a building.

I know this is only an anecdote, but this is not any kind of urban legend. She was a real person, in her 20s, and was deeply missed by at least my mom, and, I imagine, her family as well. Please be careful.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 11:45 AM on October 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

The flip side of nicotine helping directly with symptoms is that it can reduce the effectiveness of medication for the symptoms. Something to consider.
posted by kerf at 1:13 PM on October 5, 2022

MAPS does scientific studies about therapeutic uses of psychedelics. I do not see anything on their site about using psychedelics to treat schizophrenia. My instinct would be that they are not an effective treatment, but I am not a doctor.
posted by snofoam at 6:26 PM on October 5, 2022

For a while nicotine was considered as a prophylactic for COVID, it binds to the same receptors, I don't know how that turned out. On the whole nicotine has the same hazard sheet as caffeine, addictive, cardiovascular complications at high doses. But it's the method of delivery that causes most of the concern. Patches, lozenges, gum, it will absorb through the skin, it's mostly the smoking or snorting or dipping of tobacco that's the bad part. One can 'vape' nicotine in a manner that is no different from an asthma inhaler, same drug from the same supplier that makes the nicotine for those patches and lozenges. It probably has that "sensory gating" thing.

I have also hears that cannabis is not conducive to the schizophrenia case.

Not sure about LSD or Shrooms other than in general I've found psychedelics to mostly not be habit forming. They sorta seem to be self limiting and "been there done that" maybe next month or year or someday.

I am an experienced drug user and would be utilizing harm reduction techniques such as low doses and an appropriate set and setting.

Yeah, trip fairy

There may be help there in illicit drugs that probably shouldn't be. But I don't know much detail about schizophrenia except having known a few here and there, nothing clinical.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:56 PM on October 5, 2022

I used to work for a mental health agency, and their policy is to not support cannabis for anything at all, ever. I have a friend who experiences CIP (Cannabis-Induced Psychosis) when they use cannabis, and it isn't pretty at all. You can read about CIP here.
posted by SageTrail at 8:35 PM on October 5, 2022