Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that can be triggered by psychoactive substances, trauma, or other significant events/life changes. Not everyone who has schizophrenia was guaranteed to get it, it’s just that some people have the potential for it. A psychotic episode (whether substance-induced or organic) is a common trigger to cause schizophrenia in someone that had the potential to develop the disorder.
If you have a family history of mental illnesses (particularly Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder), significant THC use and substance-induced psychotic episodes can be the grain that tips the scale towards developing the disorder that may have otherwise been avoided.
(TL;DR: if Schizophrenia runs in your family, be exceedingly careful about what psychoactive substances you use.)
kibiz0r@midwest.social 3 days ago
Yall are sayin stuff like “learn about” and “detect” as if they got to just add that to their notes and continue on their day.
Going from “might develop schizophrenia some day” to “inpatient for an episode right now” is a big difference.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Schizophrenia is better treated the earlier it is diagnosed. We are not talking about people who “might develop schizophrenia one day” but those who found out they had it as a result of this process perhaps earlier than they would have otherwise.
frongt@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
I’m not sure that finding out by having an episode triggered that results in hospitalization is a good thing.
medgremlin@midwest.social 2 days ago
The earlier its diagnosed, the more severe it tends to be. If someone has schizophrenia triggered under the age of 25, the massive shift in the balance of neurotransmitters has a significant effect on the continuing development of the brain. The frontal cortex (the executive function, intelligence/wisdom, and common sense part of the brain) is the last part to finish developing. That’s why you can have teenagers and college-aged kids that are extremely smart academically, but absolute morons when it comes to decision making and self-restraint.
Schizophrenia is characterized by massive overloading of dopamine to the point that the brain malfunctions, and the medications used to treat it (anti-psychotics) mostly work by dulling the effects of dopamine and limiting its production. Finding the right anti-psychotic and right dose of that drug can take a lot of trial and error, and that’s all time lost for ongoing development of that person’s brain. Dopamine is a very important neurotransmitter, so if someone has severe schizophrenia requiring strong dopamine inhibition, they can end up with a lot of nasty side effects.
The medications have long term effects too and there’s kind of a maximum amount of time you can be on an anti-psychotic before you start having a form of medication-induced Parkinsonism. If someone’s schizophrenia gets triggered then diagnosed and treated earlier, it means they are going to start having those Parkinson’s symptoms that much earlier.
ushmel@piefed.world 2 days ago
Every time you experience psychosis, it increases your chance of experiencing it again, independent of your previous risk. Each episode makes it more likely. Unfortunately drug induced can make it worse.