MedWire (4/10, Cowen) reports that according to a study published April 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “methamphetamine users are at increased risk for developing schizophrenia.” After examining “data from California inpatient hospital discharge records for the period 1990-2000 to identify 42,412 patients with methamphetamine, 39,390 with cocaine, 408,604 with alcohol, 56,844 with opioid, 23,335 with cannabis use disorders, and a comparison group of 188,732 patients with appendicitis,” investigators “found that, compared with appendicitis patients, methamphetamine users had the greatest risk for schizophrenia (hazard ratio [HR]=9.37), followed by cannabis users (HR=8.16), cocaine users (HR= 5.84), those with alcohol use disorder (HR=5.56), and opioid users (HR=3.60), after accounting for age, gender, ethnicity, and other variables.”
Related Links:
— “Methamphetamine use may increase schizophrenia risk,”Mark Cowen, MedWire News, April 10, 2012.