The cannabis usage by the number of adults in the United States has been more than doubled from 22.6 million in 2008 to 45.0 million in 2019. This figure is almost tripled from 3.6 million to 9.8 million in 2019 among the number of daily or near-daily users. Over the same time span, the number of adults with depression also increased, as did the number of people who reported suicidal ideation or plan or who died by suicide.

To understand the masked relationship between trends in cannabis use and suicidality, the study team conducted an analysis of survey data of more than 280,000 young adults ages 18-35 years from the 2008-2019 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).

Suicide and Cannabis

The gender variability from 281,650 young adults (equal number of male and female) ages 18 to 35 years (vulnerable age group for substance use and mood disorders). Four levels of past-year cannabis use were compared by the team: no cannabis use; nondaily cannabis use; daily cannabis use; and presence of cannabis use disorder. The prevalence of major depressive episodes and suicidality trends were also assessed.

It was observed that suicidal ideation and to plan or attempt suicide were found in even people who used cannabis non-daily, fewer than 300 days a year, were more likely to have than compared to those who did not use the drug at all, regardless of whether someone was also experiencing depression.

About 3% of those who did not use cannabis with no major depressive episode, had suicidal ideation, compared with 7% of those with nondaily cannabis use, about 9% of those with daily cannabis use, and 14% of those with cannabis use disorder.

Among people with depression, 35% of people who did not use cannabis had suicidal ideation, compared to 44% of those with nondaily cannabis use, 53% of those who used cannabis daily, and 50% of those who had cannabis use disorder. Similar trends existed for the associations between different levels of cannabis use and suicide plan or attempt.

Among individuals without a major depressive episode, the prevalence of suicidal ideation for those with vs. without a cannabis use disorder was 13.9% vs. 3.5% among women and 9.9% vs. 3.0% among men. Among individuals with both cannabis use disorder and major depressive episode, the prevalence of past-year suicide plans was 52% higher for women (23.7%) than men (15.6%).

“Suicide is a leading cause of death among young adults in the United States, and the findings of this study offer important information that may help us reduce this risk. Depression and cannabis use disorder are treatable conditions, and cannabis use can be modified. Through better understanding the associations of different risk factors for suicidality, we hope to offer new targets for prevention and intervention in individuals that we know may be at high-risk. These findings also underscore the importance of tailoring interventions in a way that take sex and gender into account,” says lead author Beth Han, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., from NIDA.

Source: Medindia