Pubdate: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2005 The Arizona Republic Contact: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: Jamie Talan, Newsday Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake