POT USERS' BRAINS RESEMBLE MENTAL ILL

A teenage brain on pot looks frighteningly similar to the brains of
adolescents with schizophrenia, according to a new study.

While it's too early to prove a connection, researchers at North
Shore University Hospital-Long Island Jewish Health System caution
that marijuana could be a match that ignites an underlying genetic
vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Scientists have long debated whether drug abuse triggers
schizophrenia, which in males usually appears in late adolescence, or
whether the illness itself can lead to drug abuse.

"It is the story of nature vs. nurture," said Manzar Ashtari, an
associate professor in radiology and psychiatry at Albert Einstein
College of Medicineand a scientist at Long Island Jewish's Zucker
Hillside Hospital.

"If there are people who are vulnerable and smoke marijuana, they may
be putting themselves at greater risk for developing severe mental
illness," she said.

The studies at Zucker Hillside were done only in males because
females tend to develop schizophrenia later, in their mid-20s and
beyond. Ashtari suspects the developing brain in late adolescence is
at greater risk of environmental damage.

"Whatever insult is happening, it is taking place in brain regions
still under construction," said Ashtari, who presented her findings
Wednesday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual
meeting in Chicago.