“If somebody takes the time to listen”: Understanding the risks and reasons for cannabis use among youth who have experienced psychosis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The legalization and commercialization of cannabis in Canada has renewed concerns among mental health professionals regarding its effects on young people with mental health difficulties. Early and frequent use of the main cannabis constituent Δ-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) increases risk for developing psychosis in vulnerable populations, and consumption is common among youth in Early Psychosis Intervention (EPI) programs. Continued THC use after an episode of psychosis is associated with negative psychosocial outcomes, though a secondary cannabis component, cannabidiol (CBD), may have therapeutic or harm reduction potential. While many young people in EPI services use THC despite clinical advice to abstain, their views toward its risks and benefits are not well understood. Further, the social context surrounding cannabis use among youth who have experienced psychosis has been understudied due to the emphasis on quantitative methods in the cannabis and psychosis literature.\nThis dissertation addresses gaps in the literature by focusing on the risks, motivations for use, and social context related to cannabis use among youth who have experienced psychosis, including the history of stigma and discrimination toward cannabis users and people with experiences of psychosis, and the current sociopolitical environment that affects them. Particular attention is given to factors associated with the emergence of psychosis, including traumatic stress, immigration, racial discrimination, and economic disadvantage. To better understand the views of cannabis-consuming youth who have experienced psychosis, a qualitative study blending Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis with Qualitative Description was conducted with a sample (n=15) of young people in Ontario EPI programs. This study investigated participants’ reasons for using cannabis, perceptions of risk, and views toward its impact on their relationships with friends and family. The study also explored perspectives on CBD, THC concentrates, cannabis education, and harm reduction. The findings shed light not only on the personal and social meanings participants ascribed to this drug, but also its effects on their quality of life. The purpose of this dissertation is to further research related to cannabis and psychosis while simultaneously illuminating the voices of youth in EPI programs and informing strategies to improve mental health practice with this population. Implications for service provision, cannabis education, harm reduction, and future research are provided.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.011 | 0.016 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.010 | 0.012 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.007 | 0.008 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".