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Updated: May 16, 2026

Brain Morphology of Cannabis Users With or Without Psychosis: A Pilot MRI Study
Published on: August 18, 2020
Cannabis use and vulnerability for psychosis in early adolescence--a TRAILS study
Merel F H Griffith-Lendering1, Johanna T W Wigman, Andrea Prince van Leeuwen
1Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands. mlendering@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Aims:
To examine the direction of the longitudinal association between vulnerability for psychosis and cannabis use throughout adolescence.
Design:
Cross-lagged path analysis was used to identify the temporal order of vulnerability for psychosis and cannabis use, while controlling for gender, family psychopathology, alcohol use and tobacco use.
Setting:
A large prospective population study of Dutch adolescents [the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) study].
Participants:
A total of 2120 adolescents with assessments at (mean) age 13.6, age 16.3 and age 19.1.
Measurements:
Vulnerability for psychosis at the three assessment points was represented by latent factors derived from scores on three scales of the Youth Self-Report and the Adult Self-Report, i.e. thought problems, social problems and attention problems. Participants self-reported on cannabis use during the past year at all three waves.
Findings:
Significant associations (r = 0.12-0.23) were observed between psychosis vulnerability and cannabis use at all assessments. Also, cannabis use at age 16 predicted psychosis vulnerability at age 19 (Z = 2.6, P < 0.05). Furthermore, psychosis vulnerability at ages 13 (Z = 2.0, P < 0.05) and 16 (Z = 3.0, P < 0.05) predicted cannabis use at, respectively, ages 16 and 19.
Conclusions:
Cannabis use predicts psychosis vulnerability in adolescents and vice versa, which suggests that there is a bidirectional causal association between the two.
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