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What is cannabis-induced psychosis? Psychiatrist shares what to know.
After a California woman avoided prison time last week for fatally stabbing her boyfriend during what prosecutors called an episode of “cannabis-induced” psychosis, questions have been raised about the connection between marijuana and mental illness.
Psychosis refers to a “collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
“During an episode of psychosis, a person’s thoughts and perceptions are disrupted and they may have difficulty recognizing what is real and what is not,” the organization’s website notes.
Psychosis can result from a variety of causes, including psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia, genetic risk, exposure to stressors or trauma — and, as health professionals are seeing more, drug use including marijuana.
Nationwide, studies since 2019 have shown an increase of emergency room visits across the country as a result of cannabis, Dr. David Schreiber, psychiatrist and CEO and co-founder of Compass Health Center, told CBS News.
“What we learned from those studies is a 50% increase of adverse events as a result of cannabis use,” he said.
On a local level, Schreiber said his center, which treats complex psychiatric disorders, has also seen an increase in similar areas.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years is a significant spike in utilization of our co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder programs,” he said.
Why are there increases in these cannabis-related events?
Schreiber pointed to multiple contributing factors.
“This didn’t happen overnight,” he said, citing increases in accessibility to cannabis and cannabis products as one key factor.
“In 2019, we had 11 states that legalize recreational use of cannabis. Today they are 24 states and that number should go up to 29 by the end of this year.”
Potency has also contributed significantly.
“Cannabis today is different than cannabis of previous generations,” he said. “In the 1990s, we had potency concentration of THC and cannabis hovering around 4%. Today, that number is closer to 20% — so five times the greater amount of potency.”
Studies have shown increased potency concentration also correlates with increased adverse events, he said.
And no matter how far it may feel in the past, the COVID pandemic also plays a role, Schreiber said.
“We all want to move on from COVID, but we all have to recognize there is an aftermath — across this country we are seeing spikes in psychiatric conditions, depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma, substance use,” he said. “When people aren’t getting the care that they need for their psychiatric disorders, they tend to self-medicate. And one of the drugs that people tend to use to self-medicate is cannabis.”
Who should be aware?
While this can affect anyone, young people, whose brains are still developing, are particularly vulnerable — but Schreiber said there is “a lot that we can do,” including keeping the three “E”s in mind:
Educate: He encourages both children and their parents to get information from trustworthy organizations.
Engage: “Once you get that information, it’s important to engage in conversation,” he said. “Engage in conversation with your children, with your loved ones — give them the information they need to help them make healthier decisions.”
Enroll: Get the care you need when you need it, he said. “As parents, we know our children best, and when we see them deviating from the normal behavior or loved ones acting differently or acting in a bizarre way, it’s important for us to get them the care that they need.”
If you or a loved one is experiencing a problem with substance use, help is available via the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
U.S. stocks plummeted in one of their worst days of the year after the Federal Reserve forecast Wednesday it may deliver fewer shots of adrenaline for the economy in 2025 than it had earlier projected.
The S&P 500 fell 178 points, or 3%, pulling it further from its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,123 points, or 2.6%, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 3.6%.
The Fed said Wednesday it’s cutting its benchmark interest rate for a third time this year, continuing the sharp turnaround begun in September when it started lowering rates from a two-decade high to support the job market. Wall Street loves lower interest rates, but the Dec. 18 cut had been widely expected by Wall Street.
Why is the stock market down today?
Investors were unsettled by the Fed’s forecast for fewer cuts in 2025, even though many economists had already been paring their expectations given sticky inflation.
“Markets have a really bad of habit of overreacting to Fed policy moves,” Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, said in an analyst note. “The Fed didn’t do or say anything that deviated from what the market expected—this seems more like, I’m leaving for Christmas break, so I’ll sell and start up next year.”
The bigger question centers on how much more the Fed could cut next year. A lot is riding on it, particularly after expectations for a series of cuts in 2025 helped the U.S. stock market set an all-time high 57 times so far in 2024.
Fed officials released projections on Wednesday showing the median expectation among them is for two more cuts to the federal funds rate in 2025, or half a percentage point’s worth. That’s down from the four cuts they had expected just three months ago.
“We are in a new phase of the process,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. The central bank has already quickly eased its main interest rate by a full percentage point, to a range of 4.25% to 4.50%, since September.
What happened to the stock market today?
Asked why Fed officials are looking to slow their pace of cuts, Powell pointed to how the job market looks to be performing well overall and how recent inflation readings have picked up. He also cited uncertainties that will require policy makers to react to upcoming, to-be-determined changes in the economy.
While lower rates can goose the economy by making it cheaper to borrow and boosting prices for investments, they can also offer more fuel for inflation.
Powell said some Fed officials, but not all, are also already trying to incorporate uncertainties inherent in a new administration coming into the White House. Worries are rising on Wall Street that President-elect Donald Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could further juice inflation, along with economic growth.
“When the path is uncertain, you go a little slower,” Powell said. It’s “not unlike driving on a foggy night or walking into a dark room full of furniture. You just slow down.”
One official, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, thought the central bank should not have even cut rates this time around. She was the lone vote against Wednesday’s rate cut.
Wall Street’s worst performers
The reduced expectations for 2025 rate cuts sent Treasury yields rising in the bond market, squeezing the stock market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.51% from 4.40% late Tuesday, which is a notable move for the bond market. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, climbed to 4.35% from 4.25%.
On Wall Street, stocks of companies that can feel the most pressure from higher interest rates fell to some of the worst losses.
Stocks of smaller companies did particularly poorly, for example. Many need to borrow to fuel their growth, meaning they can feel more pain when having to pay higher interest rates for loans. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks tumbled 4.4%.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, General Mills dropped 3.1% despite reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. The maker of Progresso soups and Cheerios said it will increase its investments in brands to help them grow, which pushed it to cut its forecast for profit this fiscal year.
Nvidia, the superstar stock responsible for a chunk of Wall Street’s rally to records in recent years, fell 1.1% to extend its weekslong funk. It has dropped more than 13% from its record set last month and fallen in nine of the last 10 days as its big momentum slows.
“As we wrote in our 2025 outlook a couple of weeks ago, stretched positioning and sentiment left stocks vulnerable to a sell-off,” Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist for LPL Financial said in a note about today’s market sell-off. “The big jump in inflation expectations and related bond sell-off was a convenient excuse. Once support from tech evaporated, no other groups were able to step in to fill that gaping hole.”
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