Substance abuse and the onset of schizophrenia

Does substance use disorder affect clinical expression in first-hospitalization patients with schizophrenia? Analysis of a prospective cohort

“…Results about type of substance abused show that all patients with SUD are cannabis abusers and 41.7% is polyabuser according with previous studies (Hambrecht and Häfner, 1996;Wade, Harrigan, Harris, et al, 2006).…”

“…Studies on the course of schizophrenia have found that substance abusers not only have an higher frequency of relapse (Linszen et al, 1994;Rosenbaum et al, 2005), higher health care cost (Bartels et al, 1993) and a worse social adaptation (Caton et al, 2007), but also present several clinical conditions such as more severe hostile attitudes , more frequent thought disorders (Soyka et al, 2001) and fewer severe negative symptoms (Hambrecht and Häfner, 1996;Bühler et al, 2002;Compton et al, 2004;Bersani et al, 2002).…”

“…With certain exceptions (Mazzoncini et al, 2010), most of data obtained on this topic are inconclusive and inconsistent because they arise from studies concerning others clinical or management aspects of psychosis. However, the most frequently encountered symptoms in SUD are antisocial behavior (Hambrecht and Häfner, 1996;Rabinowitz et al, 1998), delusions, unusual contents of thought, hallucinations (Hambrecht and Häfner, 1996;Mauri et al, 2006;Sevy et al, 2010;Katz et al, 2010) and mood disorders (Linszen et al, 1994;Margolese et al, 2006).…”

Tendência temporal da esquizofrenia: um estudo realizado no âmbito hospitalar

“…Isso pode ser atribuído a maior exposição dos homens ao abuso de substâncias -como álcool, tabaco e maconha -e/ou a menor adesão ao tratamento, dentre outros motivos que podem precipitar uma crise psicótica, como foi visto no estudo de Hambrecht e Häfner (1996). Pawsey e Castle (2006) afirmam que 36,3% dos homens portadores de esquizofrenia abusam do álcool, ao passo que apenas 15,7% das mulheres o fazem; a proporção no abuso de drogas ilícitas também é maior entre o gênero masculino: 38,7% contra 17%.…”

Commentary on Liang et al. (2011): Unravelling the tangle of comorbidity – are we there yet?

“…This is not an area for superficial interpretations. As others have observed, individuals show a variety of sequences between substance use disorders and other mental disorders [7,9], and at least one survey of cannabis users actually found reduced depression in daily users [10]. Clearly, we need to become even more sophisticated in our research methodology [6].…”