Genes Link Cannabis Use to Impulsivity and Disorders
- barneyelias0
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
OG Aritcle By David Ovalle
October 14, 2025
Study ties traits to schizophrenia, bipolar, obesity. Aims for treatments.
Genes for impulsivity, obesity, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder link to cannabis use.
UC San Diego researchers released findings Monday.
Published in Molecular Psychiatry.
They studied casual and frequent users.
Goal: Find meds and therapies for problematic use.
Adds to genetics research on cannabis.
Balances benefits and risks of popularity.
Lead author Sandra Sanchez-Roige notes small addiction risk.
But factors unclear.
Study explores addicted traits.
Team includes 23andMe and other universities.
“Study biology of use to disorder,” Sanchez-Roige said.
“Reveals basics. Leads to therapeutics.”
Genomics could repurpose drugs.
Cannabis disorder disrupts life.
Affects work, education, relationships.
Withdrawal causes nausea, mood swings.
No FDA-approved treatment.
Genetics and environment drive addiction.
Thousands of traits influence vulnerability.
Risk slight, per Stanford’s Wayne Kepner.
Brain complex. Addiction not just biological.
Influenced by context, stress, society.
Genome research payoff distant.
Predisposition tests thorny.
Critics hit FDA’s opioid gene test.
Unsound science.
24 states legalized recreational cannabis.
Use rises across ages.
Concern: Potent, unregulated products.
2024: 64.2 million past-year users.
Up from 53.2 million in 2021.
20.6 million with disorder.
Interferes with life.
Recent genome clues on use and abuse.
UCSD analyzed 132,000 23andMe clients.
Surveys on use.
One gene aids brain development, neuron talk.
Links to schizophrenia.
Association, not cause, per co-author Abraham Palmer.
Shared pathways.
Another gene signals nerve cells.
Ties to impulsivity, obesity, cancer spread.
Links to use frequency.
Secondary: 40 genes for lifetime use.
Four for frequency.
29 new associations.
Genes don’t always cause conditions.
Yale study: Links to openness, risk-taking.
Includes substance use, sex.
Earlier Yale: Variants raise disorder risk.
Also lung cancer risk.
But parse tobacco effects.
Genetic differences statistically key.
But small for real use, per Joel Gelernter.
“Not clinical yet. Maybe someday.”
Comments