Cannabis-associated symptom profiles in patients with first episode psychosis and population controls

Diego Quattrone, Laura Ferraro, Giada Tripoli, Erika LaCascia, Harriet Quigley, EU-GEI group, Charlotte Gayer-Anderson, Peter B. Jones, James B. Kirkbride, Daniele La Barbera, Ilaria Tarricone, Michael T. Lynskey, Tom P. Freeman, Pak C. Sham, Alaistar Cardno, Evangelos Vassos, Jim van Os, Craig Morgan, Ulrich Reininghaus, Cathryn M. Lewis, Robin M. Murray, and Marta Di Forti

mars 2019

DOI : 10.1101/577932

Abstract :

Objective : The evidence is mixed on whether cannabis use is associated with a particular symptomatology in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients. The authors set out to investigate a) patterns of association between cannabis use and transdiagnostic symptom dimensions; b) whether the extent of use of cannabis contributes to the variation in clinical and subclinical symptom profiles.

Method : The authors analysed data from 901 patients and 1235 controls recruited across six countries, as part of the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study. Item response modelling was used to estimate two bifactor models, which included general and specific dimensions of psychotic symptoms in patients and psychotic experiences in controls. The associations between these dimensions and cannabis use was evaluated using linear mixed effects models analyses.

Results : In patients, there was a linear relationship between the positive symptom dimension and the extent of lifetime exposure to cannabis, with daily users of high potency cannabis having the highest score (B=0.35; 95%CI 0.14 to 0.56). Moreover, negative symptoms were more common among patients who never used cannabis compared with those with any pattern of use (B=-0.27; 95%CI -0.42 to -0.12). In controls, psychotic experiences were associated with current use of cannabis but not with the extent of lifetime use. Neither patients nor controls presented differences in the depressive dimension related to cannabis use.

Conclusions : The extent of use of cannabis explains part of the heterogeneous distribution of positive and negative symptoms of FEP patients.

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