Scientists research unfolds new Marijuana Addiction Gene

Scientist are saying that people who just can't go a day without taking a sniff of marijuana aren't doing it because they want to get high, but also because there is an addiction gene in the plant. A recent Yale study may have identified the specific genes involved in cannabis dependence (CAD).

via The Daily Beast:

“We showed that risk for cannabis dependence is affected specifically by certain risk alleles and these risk alleles fit biologically with some of our existing ideas of the nature of cannabis dependence,” Dr. Joel Gelernter, senior author of the study and a Yale psychiatrist, told The Daily Beast. 

For their study, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry, Dr. Gelernter and his team analyzed the genes of nearly 15,000 people sampled from three independent substance dependence cohorts. The participants were being followed for several years in order to try and understand the genetics of various types of addiction. 

Between 18 and 36 percent of the sample had an addiction to cannabis. These percentages are proportionally higher than the 10 percent of people who, on average, develop a dependence to cannabis. In order to up their chances of finding predictive genes, a higher number of people with CAD was needed. 

While the discovery of genes specific to cannabis dependence is interesting in itself, what’s even more telling are the disorders these genes share. “We also showed that genetic predisposition for cannabis dependence overlaps with genetic predisposition for major depression and schizophrenia,” Dr. Gelernter said, adding that his team was particularly surprised to find the gene overlap between cannabis dependence and major depression. 

These results help explain prior research into cannabis dependence that Dr. Gelernter alluded to earlier. For instance, a 2002 study found that 90 percent of people with CAD had some other psychiatric condition. If cannabis dependence shares some of the same genes with disorders such as major depression, then that finding of a 90 percent co-occurrence makes all the more sense. 

But one must interpret these results carefully. The authors from Yale write, “Substance use and other psychiatric illnesses may share common genetic risk factors,” or the reverse might be true, that “self-medication, or confounding by other factors may explain their co-occurrence.” 

It’s been hotly debated among scientists whether the use of cannabis early in life eventually leads to depressive symptoms later on, or whether people self-medicate such symptoms with cannabis, in order to feel better. The latter is often referred to as the self-medication hypothesis. One recent study found evidence for the former, that cannabis use in young adults eventually leads to depression later in life. On the contrary, another studyfound no evidence that cannabis use causes depression and other conditions. 

But, whichever direction the causal arrows point, this knowledge will help us better understand those who struggle with marijuana use, and why some people get addicted and others don’t. 

This is especially true for young people, as Time reporter Maia Szalavitz writes, “Teens who feel socially disconnected are at the highest risk for all types of addictions, and research shows that one of the best ways to prevent teen drug problems is to identify such youth early, before they turn to drugs.” Perhaps with genetic testing, parents will better know if their child is at risk for addiction. 

Turning to the second major finding of the Yale study, that marijuana and schizophrenia share certain genes, sheds light on another area of contention within science. Prior research does suggest that the early use of cannabis in young people is associated with a later onset of psychosis and schizophrenia. This is a long standing correlation which has been studied for years, but some studies argue it’s indeed the cannabis that eventually causes the schizophrenia. But again, the direction of causality is hard to prove.