(Press-News.org) By Amy Norton
PISCATAWAY, NJ – More people are landing in the hospital with cannabis-related problems—and for many, a mental health condition is the primary issue, according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The study, conducted in Arizona, found that between 2016 and 2021, cannabis-related hospital visits across the state rose by 20%. Among those visits, one quarter ended up with a primary diagnosis of a mental health condition, including bipolar disorder, depression, and psychotic disorder. That compared with only about 3% of visits unrelated to cannabis.
Overall, people with a cannabis-related hospital visit were nearly eight times as likely to have a primary diagnosis of a mental health disorder. And the link between the two grew stronger over the five-year study period.
The reasons for the rising rate of cannabis-related visits are unclear, according to lead researcher Madeline Meier, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University, in Tempe, Ariz.
But, she said, legalization of non-medical (recreational) cannabis use is not to blame: Arizona legalized non-medical use for adults in late 2020, with sales beginning in 2021—too late to explain the trends seen during the study period.
On the other hand, Meier said, medical use of cannabis was legal in Arizona throughout the study period. So it’s possible that easier access to the drug is partly responsible for the trends her team found. Meier noted that when states have less-restrictive policies on medical cannabis—such as making it available in dispensaries rather than pharmacies—that can make it easier for any adult to get the drug.
The findings also raise other key questions: Why do so many people with cannabis-related hospital visits have a mental health condition, and why is the connection between the two growing stronger over time?
“There are many possible explanations, and this study can’t address them,” Meier said. But based on other research, she said, one possibility is that cannabis use led to mental health conditions in some people. Another is that some people were using cannabis to treat mental health symptoms—and that tendency increased over time.
If that’s the case, Meier said, it points to a need for better public education. “I think it’s important for people to be aware that the science on using cannabis to treat mental health problems is really not there yet,” she said. “In fact, there is evidence suggesting that cannabis use can worsen mental health conditions, or even increase the risk of developing them.”
The study also found some interesting patterns related to age: Older adults (age 65 and up) showed a bigger jump in cannabis-related hospitalizations between 2016 and 2021, versus other adults. And the growing tendency for those hospitalizations to be linked to mental health conditions was most pronounced among older adults.
That’s not necessarily surprising, Meier said, given Baby Boomers’ permissive attitudes about cannabis use. But, she added, older adults may need particular education about the potential risks of using the drug—including the fact it is much more potent (and potentially intoxicating) these days, compared with the cannabis of decades ago.
-----
Meier, M. H., Hummel, H. M., & Miller, M. L. (2025). Trends in cannabis-related hospitalizations in Arizona from 2016–2021 and associations with mental health-related hospitalizations. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 83(3). https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.23-00379
END
Cannabis-related hospital visits rising, often tied to mental health conditions: Study
2025-05-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Humans prefer to put more effort into empathizing with groups than with individuals
2025-05-07
What makes us care about others? Scientists studying empathy have found that people are more likely to choose to empathize with groups rather than individuals, even though they find empathizing equally difficult and uncomfortable in both cases. The scientists suggest that the sight of groups of people could offer more context information which helps people decide whether to empathize, and therefore increases the chances that they choose to do so.
“People’s willingness to empathize is different depending on who the target is: a single individual ...
Development of high-performance proton exchange membrane for electrochemical LOHC hydrogen storage
2025-05-07
A Korean research team has developed a new proton exchange membrane (PEM) that significantly enhances the performance of electrochemical hydrogen storage systems.
Dr. Soonyong So of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) and Professor Sang-Young Lee of Yonsei University have developed a next-generation PEM for LOHC-based electrochemical hydrogen storage using a hydrocarbon-based polymer called SPAES (sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone)). This SPAES membrane reduces toluene ...
Feat of ‘dung-gineering’ turns cow manure into one of world’s most used materials
2025-05-07
The study, published in The Journal of Cleaner Production, describes the new ‘pressurised spinning’ innovation and its potential to create cellulose materials more cheaply and cleanly than some current manufacturing methods, using a waste product from the dairy farming industry, cow dung, as the raw material.
The advance is the first time that manufacturing-grade cellulose has been derived from animal waste and is a prime example of circular economy, which aims to minimise waste and pollution by reusing and repurposing resources wherever possible.
The ...
Women with serious mental health conditions likely ill-equipped for menopause transition
2025-05-07
CLEVELAND, Ohio (May 7, 2025)—Many women struggle to find resources to help manage their menopause symptoms. For women living with a serious mental illness, the need for additional support and education during the menopause transition is even greater. A new scoping review confirmed the paucity of research on this topic and suggested a need for more psychoeducation programs. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.
Serious mental illnesses are a group of mental health conditions often characterized by their chronicity and severity of symptoms that lead to significant functional impairment. ...
Vapour-deposited perovskite semiconductors power next generation circuits
2025-05-07
A research team led by Professor Yong-Young Noh and Dr. Youjin Reo from the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has developed a groundbreaking technology poised to revolutionize next-generation displays and electronic devices. The project was a collaborative effort with Professors Ao Liu and Huihui Zhu from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), and the findings were published in Nature Electronics on April 28th.
Every time we stream videos or play games on our smartphones, thousands of transistors operate tirelessly ...
Sunlight unlocks secrets to how Earth works
2025-05-07
When our planet and the incoming sunlight align just right, stunning phenomena such as rainbows and halos can occur. More often, sunlight - or shortwave radiation - interacts with Earth in subtle but curious ways.
A new perspective study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, lays out how shortwave radiation research has led to improved fundamental understanding of Earth. The study also shares exciting prospects for how such advances can continue into the future.
Scientific insights derived from shortwave ...
A healthy diet in childhood is linked to starting menstrual periods later, regardless of BMI or height
2025-05-07
Eating a healthy diet as a child is linked to girls having their first menstrual period at an older age than those who consumed a less healthy diet, according to a new study published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals.
The findings remained unaltered by the girls’ body mass index (BMI) or height, both of which have been associated with the earlier onset of periods.
The study has implications for health in later life as it is well known that women who started their periods at an early age may be at higher risk for diabetes, ...
More social parrots have a better vocabulary
2025-05-07
In the urban parks of Barcelona, Spain, the calls of a tropical parrot fill the air. The bright green monk parakeet, native to South America, has found a new home in European cities. Monk parakeets thrive in huge colonies where they communicate with each other using many distinct sounds—offering scientists a unique window into understanding the interplay of individual social relationships with vocal variety.
For social animals, communication is a key that unlocks the benefits of group living. It’s well known that animals with more complex social lives tend to have more intricate ...
T. rex’s direct ancestor crossed from Asia to North America
2025-05-07
Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.
The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, also found that the rapid growth in size of tyrannosaurids (the group that included the T. rex) as well as a closely related group called megaraptors coincided with a cooling of the global climate following a peak in temperatures 92 million years ago.
This suggests T. rex and its cousins might have been better suited to cooler climates than other dinosaur groups at the time, perhaps due to having feathers or a more warm-blooded ...
Pondering artistic beauty encourages ‘big picture’ thinking, study finds
2025-05-06
Since the dawn of philosophy, thinkers from Plato to Kant have considered how beauty affects human experience, and whether it has the power to transform our state of mind.
Now, a new study from the University of Cambridge suggests that stopping to contemplate the beauty of artistic objects in a gallery or museum boosts our ability to think in abstract ways and consider the “bigger picture” when it comes to our lives.
Researchers say the findings offer empirical evidence that engaging with artistic beauty helps us escape the “mental trappings of daily life,” such as current anxieties and to-do lists, and induce “psychological distancing”: ...