Leaders in the industry are working to create national resources for those dealing with addiction and mental health issues.
The culinary world was shaken last year when celebrity chef and television host Anthony Bourdain died by suicide. Bourdain, well-loved by fans and peers, had been open about his battles with depression and history of substance use disorder.
But for Patrick Mulvaney, owner of the exalted Mulvaney’s B&L in Sacramento, California, Bourdain’s death was a part of something larger, Civil Eats reports. In 2018 alone, at least 12 people in the Sacramento hospitality and restaurant community lost their lives to “mental health complications.”
“It was brutal,” Mulvaney told Civil Eats. “Just in between middle of December and middle of January, four people died in Sacramento, hospitality people. Three of them were either working or had worked for us before, and one was a long-time Sacramentan. So, this is about as ‘home’ as home can get.”
This is something that the industry is beginning to take into consideration. Wolete “Sunny” Atherley is the owner of two restaurants in the Sacramento area and tells Civil Eats she tends to hire young adults from the area.
“They feel like they can be themselves [here]” she said. “Over time, though, I realized a lot of my young employees were dealing with depression.”
According to Mulvaney, working in an industry built on caring about the needs of others is part of the reason why some people disregard their own needs.
“We have an industry with a problem that we don’t always talk about,” says Mulvaney. “We’re in hospitality, so we want to know how your soup is, whether your drink is right, or if your steak is cooked right, and we don’t necessarily think about ourselves that much.”
As a response to the numerous deaths in 2018, Mulvaney has partnered with Kaiser Permanente, VSP Global, WellSpace Health, the Steinberg Institute and the James Beard Foundation to build a pilot program called “I Got Your Back.”
The program is meant to break the stigma about mental health in the industry and works through peer-to-peer or near-peer counseling. Certain employees are trained to identify warning signs of mental distress and are made available as support.
Mulvaney has also been hosting mental health workshops and seminars for others in the industry. Next, he tells Civil Eats, he plans to create online resources for industry workers to reach out for help.
“If we can affect even one person, then we’re good at my restaurant,” Mulvaney said.
“If we can affect the city by having more of us in the restaurant world adopting I Got Your Back—and we want to do this across spectrums, not just James Beard restaurants. We want all restaurants from fast food to high-end eateries to adopt it—that would be cool. And, if this works [we’ll have] California, [then hopefully] Illinois, Oregon, Nevada, and other states bringing the conversation out and expanding the coalition of the willing.”
New tech may help children better identify their own feelings.
Whether or not a child suffers from an internalizing disorder like depression or anxiety may soon be identifiable through a wearable sensor, new research indicates.
According to PsyPost, a recent study put the sensors to the test. The study involved 63 children ages 3 to 8, both with and without internalizing disorders. The children wore a motion sensor which tracked their movement, and a machine learning algorithm then analyzed those movements.
Study author Ellen W. McGinnis, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vermont Medical Center, says children struggle to identify their own feelings, so the sensor may help do so.
“Young children who suffer from anxiety and depression often have a lot of difficulty understanding and communicating their suffering—and for parents, it’s really difficult to read inner emotions of someone who doesn’t even understand themselves,” she said.
“This is also a large problem, with up to 1 in 5 children experiencing an internalizing disorder during childhood, that can lead to increased risk for serious health problems like chronic anxiety and depression, substance abuse, and suicide, later in life if left untreated,” added study co-author Ryan S. McGinnis, an assistant professor at the University of Vermont.
During the study, children were taken into a “dimly lit” room. A research assistant then made statements meant to increase the children’s anticipation. The statements included things like, “I have something to show you,” and, “Let’s be quiet so it doesn’t wake up.”
The back of the room housed a covered terrarium. With the children in the room, the research assistant then pulled out a fake snake, assuring the children the assistant was allowed to play with the reptile.
This exercise and the sensors led researchers to determine that the children in the study with disorders like anxiety and depression were more apt to turn away before the snake was taken out. The algorithm from the machine did pick up on some variations between children with internalizing disorders versus those without—in fact, it was 81% accurate.
“Feasible objective screening of child anxiety and depression in young children is possible using wearable technology and is proving to be very sensitive—meaning we can find those previously overlooked kids and connect them to the services they need,” Ellen McGinnis told PsyPost.
“Hopefully people will start to see technologies like these being deployed during their children’s pediatric well visits in the coming years,” Ryan McGinnis added.
Though the results are promising, as with most small studies, researchers say a larger sample is needed to prove their results further.
“A big caveat is that, although our results are intriguing and promising, we need to replicate them in a much larger, more diverse sample,” Ellen McGinnis told PsyPost. “In so doing, we’d like to partner with pediatricians to ensure that the resulting technology can easily fit within the workflow of a standard pediatric well visit.”
Medical gaslighting — when a health care provider tells you that your symptoms are all in your head or it’s just stress — can take an enormous toll on your mental health.
Trigger Warning: The following story mentions a suicide attempt. Proceed with caution. If you feel you are at risk and need help, skip the story and get help now. Options include: Calling the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255), calling 911, and calling a friend or family member to stay with you until emergency medical personnel arrive to help you.
It’s the night before my first appointment with a new allergist. I don’t even bother trying to sleep. I’m too nervous. Instead of sleep, I refresh my twitter and Facebook feeds. I take care of the laundry, reveling in one of the few perks that comes with insomnia, like free rein of the apartment laundry room at 3:30 a.m.
My husband wakes up for work at 6 a.m. He doesn’t even bother asking if I got any sleep. He knows I’m already afraid, even before I set foot outside our apartment: am I going to come home crying and broken? I don’t expect to be believed anymore by the very doctors I seek out for medical treatment, and I’m never surprised when my complaints of chronic (and still undiagnosed) symptoms are reduced to nothing more than orders to “eat less” and “move more,” or worse yet: “it’s all in your head.”
I used to blame myself. Maybe the doctors were right. Maybe I was crazy. They are the experts, after all.
“I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis several years ago. While I got a diagnosis fairly quickly and easily, it prompted me to learn more about autoimmune diseases in general. I quickly realized how many other autoimmune patients — the majority of whom are women — weren’t nearly so lucky as I was,” she said. “I started paying more attention to how many women I knew seemed to have a story of health care providers who didn’t take their symptoms seriously — who dismissed them as ‘normal’ or ‘just stress’ or even disbelieved them entirely.”
The result of being dismissed by the medical community for legitimate complaints is that women are labeled “complainers” during their early searches for answers.
This all sounds so familiar to me that it is both comforting to know I am not alone and utterly depressing that there are so many of us being ignored by the doctors we entrust with our care.
My own experiences with gender-based medical gaslighting stretches back decades, starting with the pediatrician who dismissed my hesitant admission that I thought I might have an eating disorder. And just a few weeks ago, a dermatologist flat-out told me that the painful, chronic, and recurrent skin lesions I have been experiencing since my daughter was born almost 12 years ago — and that I am quite certain are the result of an undiagnosed autoimmune condition — are nothing more than a reflection of my dermatillomania (skin picking disorder).
When I tried to explain yet again that I only dig at the swollen spots to relive the buildup of pressure, he prescribed me Gabapentin, smiled, and told me to make an appointment for a follow-up in six months.
This Girl Thinks She Has an Eating Disorder
When I was 15, I sat in my pediatrician’s office in shock, listening to her tell the dietitian in the hallway that I just needed a talk-though on healthy eating and to send me home with some pamphlets on diet and exercise. The doctor had closed the door behind her, of course. But she hadn’t accounted for the paper-thin walls.
“This girl thinks she has an eating disorder because she can’t stick to a diet,” I heard my doctor say. I wanted the floor to open up beneath me. Instead, I nodded and smiled when the door opened, forcing my smile bigger as the dietitian gave me my pamphlets. When I got home, I promptly binged and purged, and continued to do so for six more years because I wasn’t taken seriously when I stammered my way through the phrase: “I think I have an eating disorder.”
A Burden in the Emergency Room
When I was 21, I attempted suicide before realizing that dead was permanent and scared myself into action. I called my boyfriend at the time for help, but soon I was feeling smaller and more of a burden in the emergency room than I had felt before the suicide attempt.
When the nurse asked if I felt like hurting myself again, I lied and said I was fine because I knew that if I said I still felt suicidal, they wouldn’t let me leave. I couldn’t figure out how to explain that “feeling suicidal” didn’t mean I wanted to attempt to harm myself again, but it didn’t matter. The nurse didn’t give a damn, anyway. When I said I was fine, she sighed in obvious relief, but it wasn’t relief that I was actually fine (I wasn’t), it was relief that she wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore. She didn’t say it, but I felt like I was just another messed up college kid to deal with. I was checked off her list of things that mattered, and went home to cry myself to sleep.
People Like You Can’t Be Helped
When I was in my mid-30’s, I sat before a dermatologist who was examining me for that recurring rash and inflammation cycle that results in painful sores and welts coving my entire body. He asked me if I pick at my skin, looking at my arms and face. I nodded, honest, and told him I knew I needed to see a therapist or psychiatrist about anti-anxiety meds to control the compulsions to pick at myself, and asked him how he could help me with my skin.
“People like you can’t be helped,” was the reply that his nurse later apologized for as I sat on the exam table weeping and broken, once again dismissed by the medical professional I had sought out.
Misdiagnosed
I thought that maybe I’d have better luck with a nurse practitioner.
My appointment coincided with a flare-up of my symptoms. Sitting before her with my daughter at my side, I watched her watch me, taking stock of the bright pink, weepy rash that went from chin to chest and the scabs and new lesions on my arms and legs. There was something very obviously wrong, and I remember thinking how lucky I was that my skin was on fire, my entire body inflamed inside and out for her to see. The fact that children on the street saw it and stopped, stared, and pointed at me before their mothers hurried them away actually had me looking forward to the appointment. I wasn’t crazy: there was (and still is) really something wrong with me. The proof was in the mirror.
Instead, she ignored my description of my symptoms, disregarded the pattern in which they appeared, and asked me how often I exercised and what my diet consisted of. She told me I was likely diabetic (I wasn’t), and that all of my health problems would resolve if I ate less and exercised more.
The author on the day of her appointment.
It took two years before I was brave enough to see another doctor -any doctor – after that one. I’m still searching for answers and a doctor who will listen. All I have to show for it are severe anxiety and soaring blood pressure readings at the end of every appointment.
Medical Gaslighting and Mental Health
To Dusenbery, my experience makes sense and fits with the research and stories she shares in her book.
“I think medical gaslighting can take an enormous toll on your mental health. Even for very privileged women, it can be very difficult to trust yourself and what your body is telling you and push back when an expert with a white coat and an MD is insisting that ‘nothing is wrong,’” she said. “I have to believe that many health care providers simply don’t realize the harm they’re capable of causing by dismissing or disbelieving women’s reports of their symptoms.”
There are the good ones, of course. The doctors who have believed something is wrong but couldn’t find the answer. These are the doctors who treat their patients with respect and dignity and listen. And then there are the ones like the dermatologist who told me people like me could not be fixed.
But I know better now. I am not the one who is broken.
If you or someone you know may be at risk for suicide, immediately seek help. You are not alone.
Options include:
Calling the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
Calling 911
Calling a friend or family member to stay with you until emergency medical personnel arrive to help you.
Working longer hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, according to a new study.
Working longer hours is associated with increased risk of depression in women, but not men, while working weekends increased symptoms of depression in both genders, according to a recent study.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that men who worked all or most weekends had 3.4% more symptoms of depression than men who didn’t work weekends, while women who worked weekends experienced 4.6% more depressive symptoms than their counterparts who didn’t work weekends.
Interestingly, working more hours during the week increased depression symptoms in women, but not in men. Women who worked 55 hours a week had 7.3% more depressive symptoms than those who worked 30-40 hours.
Lead study author Gill Weston told Science Dailythat there are likely social aspects at play to explain the difference between how men and women respond to extra work hours.
“This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labor than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities,” Weston said.
The results also likely have to do with the type of jobs that people are working, she added. The study found that people of both genders who worked weekends were less satisfied with their careers and were more likely to be doing low-skilled work.
“Additionally women who work most weekends tend to be concentrated in low-paid service sector jobs, which have been linked to higher levels of depression,” Weston said.
She added that factors outside of work hours also contribute to the risk of depression.
“Women in general are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study,” she said. “Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.”
Weston suggested that having more flexible schedules could help counteract depressive symptoms that are connected to work, particularly for women.
“We hope our findings will encourage employers and policymakers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours—without restricting their ability to work when they wish to. More sympathetic working practices could bring benefits both for workers and for employers—of both sexes.”
Lambert shared how he used his music and peer support to deal with depression.
Pop star Adam Lambert recently opened up about his mental health struggles, and shared how he made it out of a “dark period” in his life.
In a series of tweets, Lambert first thanked his fans for their “patience and continued faith in me. You’ve pushed me to keep going even when I felt discouraged.”
Lambert described his struggles in the music industry and how he’s resisted compromising his art. “Don’t get me wrong – I’m VERY proud of my body of work. But I’m coming out of a dark period of second-guessing my own artistry and having my mental health suffer because of it. I started asking myself, ‘Is all this hustle really worth it?’”
By focusing so intensely on his work, Lambert felt “detached in my personal life. My self-worth was suffering. I was lonely and becoming depressed.”
Lambert, who has toured with Queen, then got back on track.
“With a bit of professional help and the support of colleagues, friends and family, I pulled myself out of the darkness.”
Part of his recovery process included writing music again, going back to “the headspace I was in when I first dreamed of being a singer – before playing [the] industry game started messing with my love for music.”
The result was Lambert’s new single, “Feel Something,” which he says “was written about me climbing out of the low period, defying my disillusionment, owning my needs, and opening my heart.”
Lambert got tired of the bachelor life, and between that and his frustrations with the music industry, “I felt numb…I wanted to fall in love, I knew I wasn’t ready. That’s what inspired me to cry out, I don’t need to feel love, I just want to feel something! It was in this realization that I took my first step toward self-care and nursing my spirit back to health.”
Lambert promised fans that his new music charts “the journey of taking responsibility for my own happiness and strength, and searching for intimacy. Since writing this song I’ve found the joy I was missing and I’m back in my power. I can’t wait for you to hear more!”
New recommendations for expanded mental health care access could impact up to 15% of new moms.
A government task force is recommending that primary care providers provide counseling services, or referrals to counselors, to all pregnant and postpartum women who are at high risk of developing depression. The move could increase access to counseling for these women, since insurance providers will now be required to cover counseling for pregnant and postpartum women.
The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force could affect up to 15% of new moms. People at high risk of developing depression before or after giving birth include young moms, low-income women, and women with a past history of depression. For these people, early screening and intervention via counseling can be very effective.
“I am very happy to see anything related to prevention, whether it’s mental health generally or perinatal depression specifically. If we can prevent problems from occurring, not only do we do a great service to humans, but [the health care system] saves a great deal of money,” Jeff Temple, a University of Texas psychologist in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, told Time.
However, Temple added that there are still barriers to access to mental health care, especially for at-risk women. These include an already understaffed and overburdened mental health system.
“If we need to see 15% of perinatal women, there’s absolutely no way that we have the ability to do that. We need to put more money and effort into training more psychologists and counselors,” he said.
Ideally, doctors who are taking care of women during pregnancy would integrate mental health services and counseling into their practices, said Temple.
“If these women are screened and they’re recommended to someone [for counseling] and it’s kind of a cold handoff, very few will follow up with it. But if one implication of this is that OB/GYN departments start to incorporate counselors and psychologists within their services, then we’ll see a huge benefit. If we did that, I am 100% positive we would see declines in perinatal depression.”
Temple believes this will happen in the future, as the country grows more aware about the importance of mental health.
“I think we’re starting to understand the importance of mental health as a society, and the importance of prevention,” he said. “The future is definitely going to be psychologists within primary care departments.”
American Counseling Association president Simone Lambert said that focusing on mothers’ mental health could improve outcomes for women and babies. Being proactive is the best way to do that, Lambert said.
“The benefits of increased maternal and infant wellness and decreased stigma to seek mental health assistance would likely lead to less of a toll on our healthcare system than when mental health concerns are unaddressed.”
Depression is associated with sadness, crying and an inability to get out of bed. However, up to 40% of people who have depression may have “smiling depression” and not exhibit these symptoms.
“It can be very hard to spot people suffering from smiling depression. They may seem like they don’t have a reason to be sad – they have a job, an apartment and maybe even children or a partner. They smile when you greet them and can carry pleasant conversations. In short, they put on a mask to the outside world while leading seemingly normal and active lives,” Olivia Remes, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge, wrote for Science Alert.
Many people are able to “keep up appearances” even while they’re feeling down. Marissa, a 22-year-old from New Jersey, posted a picture of her smiling at an adorable puppy, with the caption, “Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the most joy.”
However, Marissa told Women’s Health how she really felt that day: “I wish I had half of this puppy’s joy. Earlier today I was driving, and looking for objects to crash into. My life feels so overwhelming that I just can’t deal.”
Smiling depression isn’t a medical term, but depression with atypical features is. People who suffer from depression with atypical features might have primary symptoms including weight gain or appetite increase, sleepiness, or social isolation.
However, they can still experience positive reactions to good events, whereas many people with typical depression might not be able to tap into the joy brought by good news or positive occurrence.
This can make it hard for some people to recognize that they’re depressed, Dr. Michelle B. Riba, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center, told Health.
“Many people will come to their doctor complaining about sleep problems, or headaches, not realizing that it’s a mood disorder because they don’t have low mood. Not all symptoms of depression always occur at once.”
Another woman who spoke with Women’s Health posted a picture of herself in a shirt that said “Be kind always.” However, that didn’t actually fit her mood, she explained.
“I feel so down I almost broke into tears at the grocery store today. I wish I could have extended this kindness to myself,” the 33-year-old said.
The feelings of smiling depression can sneak up and be surprising, said Rebecca, 36, who posted a photo of herself smiling at a friend’s wedding.
“After this, I snuck out of the reception to cry in my hotel because I suddenly felt depressed without knowing why,” she said.
For a new study, researchers explored the potential link between intake of fruits and veggies and mental well-being.
Eating your fruits and vegetables may be just as important for your mental health as it is for your body, according to CNN’s “The Conversation” column.
The column is written by the authors of a recent study done on the topic: Neel Ocean, research fellow in behavioral economics, and Peter Howley, associate professor of economics at the University of Leeds.
For the recent study, the two drew from a 2016 study done in Australia which found that an increase in fruit and vegetables consumption led to improvements in a person’s psychological well-being.
Howley and Ocean wanted to determine whether the outcome was the same with a larger pool of participants. So, they studied more than 40,000 individuals from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
“Our analysis showed that increases in the consumption of fruit and vegetables are linked to increases in self-reported mental well-being and life satisfaction in data that spans a five-year period, even after accounting for other determinants of mental well-being such as physical health, income and consumption of other foods,” Ocean and Howley wrote.
According to the researchers, adding just one serving of fruits or vegetables daily may have as many benefits for mental well-being as adding seven to eight walks per month to your physical regimen.
In this case, they define “one serving” as one cup of raw veggies, half a cup of cooked veggies, or one entire piece of fruit.
Howley and Ocean did point out that their research alone is not enough to establish a solid link between eating
fruits and veggies and mental well-being. They also point out what they call the “substitution effect.”
“People can only eat so much in a day, so someone who eats more fruits and vegetables might just have less room in their diet for unhealthy foods,” they wrote. “Although we accounted for bread and dairy in our study, ideally, future research should track all other foods consumed to rule out alternative explanations.”
The two also a highlight a commentary on their findings by the researchers of the 2016 study in Australia.
“The authors show that the number of fruit and vegetable portions eaten in a day can predict whether someone is diagnosed with depression or anxiety two years later,” Howley and Ocean wrote. “But the reverse does not seem to be true. Being diagnosed with depression does not appear to be a strong predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption two years later. This suggests that it is perhaps more likely that eating fruits and vegetables is influencing mood and not the other way around.”
In the end, the two say that while their findings are encouraging, more research on the topic is needed in order to draw definite conclusions.
“We are not suggesting eating fruits and vegetables is a substitute for medical treatment, but a simple way to improve your mental health could be to add a little more fruit and veg to your daily diet,” they wrote.
Students in need of mental health resources formed a group to solve the issue for themselves and their peers.
When a 15-year-old girl in England reached out for mental health assistance and was placed on a waiting list, she and her friends decided to take matters into their own hands.
According to The Guardian, Molly Robinson had been battling unexplained pain and worry over what was causing it, creating overwhelming feelings of anxiety. It eventually got to the point where she couldn’t even go to school.
So, Robinson and some friends decided to create a group called We Will, to focus on gaining understanding and support for adolescents struggling with mental health.
The seven members say aspects, such as the push to do well academically and the pressures of social media, play into their mental health.
“It’s very different being a teenager now,” Chloe Wilson, 17, tells The Guardian. “Especially parents; they want their child to be fine. They’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s just hormones.’”
Jasmine Dean, 17, adds that she has heard a friend talk about suicide and wonders why the lack of mental health resources is justifiable. “How is being in crisis with a mental health issue any different from being in crisis with a physical issue?” Dean said.
Because the students knew they would need assistance, they reached out to Kate Whitmarsh, who serves as a development worker at Ewanrigg Big Local. Ewanrigg Big Local is community group with “a mandate to grow grassroots initiatives proposed by anyone resident in the area,” according to The Guardian.
Whitmarsh says that in the area, child poverty rates have climbed, public services and work opportunities are limited, and the statistics regarding health are not positive.
“It’s tough growing up here on the western edge of Cumbria,” says Whitmarsh. “This isn’t the affluent Lake District: lots of young people live in rural deprivation.”
Whitmarsh has helped the group in their efforts to create their own video, speak to local businesses about putting out mental health awareness posters, speak to the media, and reach out to leadership in their schools.
The students also encouraged 80 students and staff members at their school to participate in a mental health first aid class that covered recognizing a person in emotional pain, but also realizing they are not responsible for solving someone else’s problems.
Going forward, the school plans to offer the same course to governors and parents of students, which could be a significant financial investment according to The Guardian.
“My argument is: how can we afford not to?” assistant head Steve Milledge tells The Guardian. “Thresholds for Camhs (child and adolescent mental health services) are getting higher. There’s been an increase in the number of children talking about suicide. Without a counsellor, there are children who wouldn’t be able to be in school. A culture of listening and being listened to is really important in people feeling well and healthy.”
A scientific review explored the potential link between depression and teen marijuana use.
Smoking pot is often portrayed as a harmless rite of passage for teens, but according to a scientific review released this week, smoking cannabis can significantly increase a teenager’s risk of developing depression and suicidal thoughts as a young adult.
The review, published in JAMA Psychiatry, looked at data from 11 studies covering more than 23,000 individuals. Researchers concluded, “Adolescent cannabis consumption was associated with increased risk of developing depression and suicidal behavior later in life, even in the absence of a premorbid condition.”
According to Science Daily, smoking pot increases the chances of developing depression by about 7%. That could lead to an additional 400,000 cases of depression in teens in the U.S.
“Our findings about depression and suicidality are very relevant for clinical practice and public health. Although the size of the negative effects of cannabis can vary between individual adolescents and it is not possible to predict the exact risk for each teenager, the widespread use of cannabis among the young generations makes it an important public health issue,” said Professor Andrea Cipriani, who was involved in the study.
She pointed out that the data was carefully controlled and considered in order to really understand the connection between marijuana use, depression and suicidal thoughts. Interestingly, the researchers did not find any increased risk for anxiety in teens who smoked marijuana.
“We looked at the effects of cannabis because its use among young people is so common, but the long-term effects are still poorly understood. We carefully selected the best studies carried out since 1993 and included only the methodologically sound ones to rule out important confounding factors, such as premorbid depression,” Cipriani said.
Lead study author Dr. Gabriella Gobbi said that the review shows a new health concern stemming from marijuana use among teens.
“While the link between cannabis and mood regulation has been largely studied in preclinical studies, there was still a gap in clinical studies regarding the systematic evaluation of the link between adolescent cannabis consumption and the risk of depression and suicidal behavior in young adulthood. This study aimed to fill this gap, helping mental health professionals and parents to better address this problem,” she said.
The possible increased risk for depression is yet another health consequence of marijuana that policymakers need to consider, especially as the drug becomes more widely available on the recreational market, Cipriani said.
“Regular use during adolescence is associated with lower achievement at school, addiction, psychosis and neuropsychological decline, increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, as well as the respiratory problems that are associated with smoking.”
