Have I got schizophrenia

[Supermanslice]

My doctor diagnosed me with drug induced psychosis last September I started hearing voices last May on a rare occasion I’ve had constant voices for a year now and I read online that its if symptoms last more than 6months, was it because I continued to do coke and weed for a couple of months till January this year, pls help doctors haven’t gave me news yet

[Supermanslice]

Pls someone respond I need to know my old pdoc said you get schizo if symptoms haven’t improved for 8months then my new doc is like if they don’t go away within a year and half then my proper doc will look into if I got schizo or not they just stringing me along I know I have it I need confirmation so I can sleep

[Anon10]

From what I’ve heard some drug induced psychosis people go into remission, more than brain chemistry induced szs. But many continue to have sz symptoms, I guess you’ll have to wait and see if you really have schizophrenia.

[SzAdmin]

Only a doctor can tell you that - specifically a psychiatrist.

Are you on medications?

coke and weed makes things much worse - so I would definitely quit those entirely. You need to be off those during that 6 months to know better if you’ve got some form of psychosis.

Read up on what the weed, etc. is doing to your brain:

Cannabis Use when you have Schizophrenia - the Negative Problems and Impacts

Continuing the discussion from We need a chat room (instant messaging): I think the vast majority of the research suggests that cannabis (with moderate or higher levels of THC) is a bad idea if you have psychosis / schizophrenia. I think most psychiatrists who are working to help their patients try to get them to quit. Here is a quote from a current study in Europe: “Cannabis use by people with schizophrenia is associated with family distress and poor clinical outcomes. Therefore, an Family Motivational Intervention (FMI) was developed to help parents to motivate their child with a diagnoses of recent-onset schizophrenia to reduce cannabis use.” source: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct…

New Study shows how Cannabis / Marijuana damages White Matter in Brain of people with First Episode Psychosis / schizophrenia

The team explored the impact of cannabis potency in inducing psychosis. They used an MRI technique to look at the white matter of 99 people, 56 of which had reported a first psychotic episode. They found that white matter damage was significantly greater among heavy users of high-potency cannabis compared to occasional or low-potency users. Dr. Paola Dazzan, reader in neurobiology of psychosis from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, and senior researcher on the study, said in a statement: “We found that frequent use of high potency cannabis significantly affects the structure of white matter fibres in the brain, whether you have psychosi…

Smoking skunk cannabis triples risk of serious psychotic episode, says research

Smoking powerful skunk cannabis triples the risk of suffering a serious psychotic episode, scientists have found. In the population studied by the researchers in South London, where cannabis use is widespread, the drug is linked to one quarter of all new cases of psychosis, the team found. The findings add to a compelling body of evidence that smoking strong cannabis “tilts the odds” towards a person developing psychosis, which leads to schizophrenia in about half of cases. The study found that those who smoked skunk every day had five times the normal risk of experiencing extended episodes in which they heard voices, suffered delusions or demonstrated erratic behaviour. Sir Robin Murray…

Cannabis and psychosis: understanding the smoke signals

From @firemonkey (thanks for pointing us towards this!) There is no cure for schizophrenia. Accordingly, clinicians must do their best at managing the various symptoms that emerge during the course of the disease. Therefore, identification of putative risk factors that trigger relapse and contribute to poor prognosis is crucial. Because cannabis might contribute to the development of schizophrenia, The continued effect of the drug on the course of the disease is of great clinical interest and a focus on how to improve outcomes in this disorder is essential. In their observational study, Tabea Schoeler and colleagues investigated the effects of different patterns of cannabis…

Social Functioning Trajectories of Young First-Episode Psychosis Patients with and without Cannabis Misuse: A 30-Month Follow-Up Study

Summary: On the whole, this study shows that cannabis misuse was highly prevalent (> 50%) within a sample of FEP patients after the remission of acute psychotic symptoms. While an overall improvement in social functioning was observed in this sample, in the context of an early intervention service, those patients with baseline cannabis misuse did not improve their long-term social outcomes during the study period. Therefore, there is a need to develop effective interventions to reduce cannabis misuse and, ultimately, to improve social outcomes, which is an essential goal for specialized services that provide care for young people with psychosis. Source: (full paper)

How harmful is cannabis? – podcast

What has convinced some researchers that the risks of heavy cannabis use now warrant public health campaigns to warn people of potential harm? How real is the risk of psychosis among vulnerable users of the drug? And why has the number of young people receiving treatment for cannabis-related problems seemingly been on the rise in the UK? Ian Sample is joined by Sir Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at King’s College London, Suzi Gage, senior research associate in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at Bristol University and Ian Hamilton, a mental health lecturer at the University of York.

[shutterbug]

It doesn’t really matter why you are hearing voices. I did a lot of drugs and was eventually DX’d with SZ. Could have been the drugs, could have been something else. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that the sooner you accept treatment, the better your outcome is. I’m a married guy with a kid and a job. My life is pretty good. Yeah, I still have to take meds for my condition, but things are working for me. they can work for you, too. There are a tonne of success stories here and you could be the next one.

Wishing you good luck.

[anon11056724]

I had something similar, from drugs. The doctors didn’t know what to call it because it didn’t meet all the criteria for schizophrenia so they told me that I had damaged my limb ic system. Anyway the voices stopped one day and I really never heard them since but I see the mistake of going back to drugs(weed) seven years later and bam! I became psychotic again.
Now I have intermittent episodes that are triggered by things other than drugs like stress and breakups and stuff. The psychosis is no where near as strong as when I took drugs and it responds immediately to treatment. There’s a saying in AA, " once your a pickle you can never be a cucumber again"
Food for thought man