Heavy Marijuana Users Have Abnormal Brain Structure

Abusing marijuana appears to foster brain changes that resemble schizophrenia, according to a recent Northwestern Medicine study. Teens who were heavy marijuana users — smoking it daily for about three years — had abnormal changes in their brain structures related to working memory and performed poorly on memory tasks, the report revealed. Published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the study noted that the brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed two years after the individuals had stopped smoking marijuana, indicating the possible long-term effects of chronic use, and that marijuana-related brain abnormalities look similar to schizophrenia-related brain abnormalities.  Moreover, the younger the individuals were when they started chronically using marijuana, the more abnormally their brain regions were shaped. “This paper is among the first to reveal that the use of marijuana may contribute to the changes in brain structure that have been associated with having schizophrenia,” said co-senior study author John Csernansky, MD. Click here to read the full article.