Research by a group of scientists studying the effects of heavy marijuana use suggests that withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes. Abstinence from each of these drugs appears to cause several common symptoms, such as irritability, anger and trouble sleeping – based on self reporting in a recent study of 12 heavy users of both marijuana and cigarettes.
“These results indicate that some marijuana users experience withdrawal effects when they try to quit, and that these effects should be considered by clinicians treating people with problems related to heavy marijuana use,” says lead investigator in the study, Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. Admissions in substance abuse treatment facilities in which marijuana was the primary problem substance have more than doubled since the early 1990s and now rank similar to cocaine and heroin with respect to total number of yearly treatment episodes in the United States, says Vandrey.
He points out that a lack of data, until recently, has led to cannabis withdrawal symptoms not being characterized or included in medical reference literature such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, (DSM-IV) or the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10).
Since the drafting of the DSM-IV in 1994, an increasing number of studies have surfaced suggesting that cannabis has significant withdrawal symptoms. What makes Vandrey’s recent study unique is that it is the first study that compares marijuana withdrawal symptoms to withdrawal symptoms that are clinically recognized by the medical community – specifically the tobacco withdrawal syndrome.
“Since tobacco withdrawal symptoms are well documented and included in the DSM-IV and the IDC-10, we can infer from the results of this comparison that marijuana withdrawal is also clinically significant and should be included in these reference materials and considered as a target for improving treatment outcomes,” says Vandrey.
Vandrey added that this is the first “controlled” comparison of the two withdrawal syndromes in that data was obtained using rigorous scientific methods – abstinence from drugs was confirmed objectively, procedures were identical during each abstinence period, and abstinence periods occurred in a random order. That tobacco and marijuana withdrawal symptoms were reported by the same participants, thus eliminating the likelihood that results reflect physiological differences between subjects, is also a strength of the study.
Interestingly, the study also revealed that half of the participants found it easier to abstain from both substances than it was to stop marijuana or tobacco individually, whereas the remaining half had the opposite response.
“Given the general consensus among clinicians that it is harder to quit more than one substance at the same time, these results suggest the need for more research on treatment planning for people who concurrently use more than one drug on a regular basis,” says Vandrey.
Vandrey’s study, which appears in the January issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, followed six men and six women at the University of Vermont in Burlington and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., for a total of six weeks. All were over 18 (median age 28.2 years), used marijuana at least 25 days a month and smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day. None of the subjects intended to quit using either substance, did not use any other illicit drugs in the prior month, were not on any psychotropic medication, did not have a psychiatric disorder, and if female, were not pregnant.
For the first week, participants maintained their normal use of cigarettes and marijuana. For the remaining five weeks, they were randomly chosen to refrain from using either cigarettes, marijuana or both substances for five-day periods separated by nine-day periods of normal use. In order to confirm abstinence, patients were given daily quantitative urine toxicology tests of tobacco and marijuana metabolites.
Withdrawal symptoms were self reported on a daily basis Monday through Friday using a withdrawal symptom checklist that listed scores for aggression, anger, appetite change, depressed mood, irritability, anxiety/nervousness, restlessness, sleep difficulty, strange dreams and other, less common withdrawal symptoms. Patients also provided an overall score for discomfort they experienced during each abstinence period.
Results showed that overall withdrawal severity associated with marijuana alone and tobacco alone was of similar frequency and intensity. Sleep disturbance seemed to be more pronounced during marijuana abstinence, while some of the general mood effects (anxiety, anger) seemed to be greater during tobacco abstinence. In addition, six of the participants reported that quitting both marijuana and tobacco at the same time was more difficult than quitting either drug alone, whereas the remaining six found that it was easier to quit marijuana or cigarettes individually than it was to abstain from the two substances simultaneously.
Vandrey recognizes that the small sample size is a limitation in this study, but the results are consistent with other studies indicating that marijuana withdrawal effects are clinically important.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org
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i been smoking for 7 years DAILY and quit3 days ago.
what aint we gonna drink water cos it leads to vodka?
dont ciggarettes lead to smoking weed?
u sad sad “scientists”. u aint got a clue what goes on ….
jheez no wonder there was a hitler on earth, ur lucky cos if it was me i would kill u .
u know what u r chattin is bollox
CIGERETTES ARE MUCH MORE ADDICTING THAN WEED !! I DO FIND SOME WITHDRAWL SYMPTOMS IN MYSELF WHEN I TRY TO QUIT MARIJUANA! HOT FLASHES , NO HUNGER, INSOMNIA, LOW ENERGY, IRRATIBLE, HEAD ACHE, ABOUT A WEEK OF THAT SHIT AND THEN ITS ON TO RECOVERY! SLEEPING IS STILL A PROBLEM ! THERE ARE SOME SIMULARITIES TO THE WITHDRAWL AFFECTS OF WEED VS CIGERRETES BUT ILL TELL YOU I QUIT SMOKING CIGS FOR 3 DAYS AND IT WAS WORSE THAN QUITTING WEED FOR MONTHS! WEED TAKES THE WORRIES OUT OF LIFE FOR ME SOMEWHAT KINDA LETS IT RUN OFF INSTEAD OF BOILING MY BLOOD HELPS DEPRESSION MOST DAYS…CURES BORDOM AND GETS ME THREW A LIFE OF MISERY, HARDSHIPS AND PAIN!!!! THAT BEING SAID I FEEL FOR ME WEED IS MORE MENTAL THAN PHYSICAL WHICH IS WERE THE CIGERETTES LAY! ( “grow up and live in reality”) 2 things said to me over the years my anwser to that is grow up for what? SO I CAN DIE FASTER! live in reality i live it every damn day high or not and if i can be high and content without stressing about what ill never have how much debt i have what ive done wrong,the goof neighbour and where i cant get to in this life time… then say i dont live in reality ! ps sleep like a baby !!!! conclusion nicotine is much more evil than thc and not really a good comparision weed stands alone and holds its own!
im on day 5 ive had these symptoms and i had a weird dream about sum1 jumoing out a window wit down and i never have dreams
I am 19, male.
I have been smoking cigarettes at a clip of 7-10/day for about 4 years. Likewise, I have been smoking marijuana, habitually and irresponsibly, for the past two straight years. If I was awake, I was high, I compensated for the price with some despicable activity. Upon finishing my freshman year at college, enough was enough. I have been home for 2 weeks, and have been cold turkey on both substances since. I cannot stress this enough, marijuana ‘withdrawal’ is much worse than the after effects of quitting nicotine. I haven’t wanted a cigarette, not in the least bit, quitting just helped me reinforce how disgusting they truly are. The marijuana has put my mental make-up in the gutter. I find it hard to function in relationships, even those that never revolved around the drug, let alone the crippling sadness, suicidal thoughts, and overall bereavement I must go through every day.
This entire thing reeks of fake science. I don’t believe a word of it.
Isn’t Scoliosis deformation of the spinal column? I’m confused by smarty-pants here – he seems to think it’s a “mental disorder”?
How shall I expand this?? The man is a quack. His studies, and I use the term lightly, are funded by federalie pension seeking scums who have every reason to continue the fake science. Vandry is a fraud who falsifies science when he is actually on the take by being a grant hunter just like his dad, harry anslinger, another federalie pension seeking thug who caused untold horrible damage to thousands and thousands of American citizens so he could act a big shot.
Write you congressperson and tell them to legalize medical cannabis and save the hate mail you get back from them. Your kids will love to read the idiots as they smoke pot with Vandry’s kids.
the test group was 12!!!!!!!!! 12????!!!!! that is like a failure rate of 90 percent. you need at least 600 in order to draw any conclusions from a clinical study. what a waste of time and effort. if only they used more than a handful of people to do it. second reason: these people were already smoking. in order for this test to be accurate, control subjects should have been used; people who had no history of smoking marijuana and tobacco. maybe the test subjects are an abnormality of being addicted. you wouldnt test addiction rates of crack on a bunch of coke heads now would you, please contact me, my mediocre knowledge of psychology will help you on your quest of withdrawal symptoms. any body want to reply to this? becasue i’m pretty sure i’m right and no one can prove me wrong.
You missed a critical part of the study. The study clearly stated that it was tested on subjects that had no mental disorders (not saying that ADD, ADHD, Bipolarity, or scoliosis are disorders, but are abnormalities). So you’re input while appreciated, only applies to people that have ADD/ADHD, bipolarity and scoliosis. The study was intended to give a baseline for people that have nothing irregular with their brain functions. So next time before you completely discredit a clinical study at least read the study before you judge the educational level of the study. The study was also meant as a baseline for treating withdrawal symptoms in an effort to ease others suffering. What you are trying to do is discredit this and contribute to others pain/ suffering. I have been an avid marijuana abuser for years and have recently stopped due to the adverse effects of the drug (memory loss, depression, lack of motivation, ect) and have witnessed the same withdrawal symptoms mentioned in the article. There is one last point that I would like to mention, you said “oh and for the record; im pretty sure only 9 finished because the other 3 knew it was a bullshit study and wanted to resume living their lives as humans, instead of test subjects” but this makes no sense as you claim to be conducting your own study of the same measures of the clinical study in the article, the same “Bullshit study”, if it is bullshit then why are you wasting your time and our time by writing another article about it? Especially if you plan on filling it with your own uneducated, unproven comments? I am not trying to piss anyone off or to discredit anyone else’s studies, but when someone such as yourself does something like this that hinders the progression of medical studies and research it become a greater problem.
ok, so you mean to tell me that the same stuff i smoke both medicinally, and recreationally’s withdrawl symptoms are as bad as cocaine or heroin? wow. you “scientists” as you like to call yourself/, must have graduated from a community college.
marijuana isnt as addicting as either of those drugs, and as for withdrawl symptoms; they dont exist. and i can say that as a frequent user of 8 years.
i started smoking when i was 10 years old, and it did wonders for my ADHD, bipolar, and scoliosis. after i had moved away, i quit for 2 years, cold turkey. something that is HARD to do with cigarettes; and damn near IMPOSSIBLE to do with cocaine or heroin. no withdrawls, and no fiending. i started back up after that 2 year time period because my DISORDERS were causing me problems, not the fact of not having it.
the only reason these scientists are saying all of this bullshit is because theyre paid to do so. the FDA and DEA go to these people, and tell them what to write. the DEA makes more money making busts on the growers community and distributors, therefore making it profitable to keep illegal, especially when its the most used “drug” in the US; NOT TO MENTION the FDA keeping it illegal so they can make all of these man made drugs that sometimes dont even work, just to make those whom are already rich, richer (I.E: Baxter labs H1N1 vaccine that killed more of their test subjects than they cured. as well as them creating the virus themselves off the coast of the cayman islands) as well as unknowingly making the doctors in the hospitals legalized pill pushers, which makes the companies more money, which in turn goes back to the government, allowing them to maintain their stranglehold over the medical world, Hmm, funny thing how obama is trying to push this healthcare issue isnt it? and these arent theories people, these are hard facts that most of those scientists and government higher-ups dont want you to know, you just have to put two and two together, and times it by all of the past events, like them keeping the hemp industry down so the timber industry could prosper during the late 1800’s
So; here is what im going to do:
im going to conduct a study of my own seeing as how im just as capable of doing the same study as the 12 participants were involved in. starting today; november 5th, 2009; im quitting marijuana for 30 days cold turkey, and documenting the results. and unlike the scientists, i wont bullshit around with the facts or the outcome. this will be 100% truth based, and un-biased by governmental officials. im 19 years old by the way, so marijuana has been in my life long enough to definitely show some form of withdrawl symptoms if they actually show
i believe in this plant as well as the community of people that it has helped for generations
i would gladly do this for the sake of those who share my passion and beliefs for this herb. and hopefully, this will bring some light to the scientists and the corporate drug pushers that we are not an ignorant group of people and that you dont need a degree to perform a study and deliver the REAL results to the same people that both enjoy and use this herb as a medicine
Contact me at [email protected] if you want updates on the study.
i’ll be doing day to day updates on the test which includes hours of sleep attained,
mood (excluding random events during the day that would normally piss people off) and ability to stay calm (pertaining to the irritability) as well as documenting any other unusual things that may co-inside with withdrawl symptoms.
oh and for the record; im pretty sure only 9 finished because the other 3 knew it was a bullshit study and wanted to resume living their lives as humans, instead of test subjects
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Funny shit. Is this comedy?
does it matter it’s the word dat counts, ”picky”. lol got ya back
i smoked 6 times a day everyday for like 5 or 6 months
and when i came off of it TODAY
i was only showing symptoms for like 8 hours then they faded and i fell asleep several times easily, i used to do it everyday and stop for a few days without even noticing, as long as you dont stay high all day you wont get these symptoms
everybodys different to, my friend smokes once a week and didnt have it one week and was sitting on his couch so desperate for it he called me at midnight asking for a dime and he lives like 3 or 4 miles away
its different for everyone
You seem like a nut. And I recommend people ignore you. If you can’t type, why should we think you can reason?
Malarky!!! Knowing that the test subjects had no intentions of actually quitting may have something to do with your flawed research. I was a heavy tobacco user from age 18 to 30 and a heavy pt smoker from 20 to 44 and a heavy pot smoker although I started smoking pot at age 15.I gave up tobacco at age 30 and five years later, after five years of craving that never went away, weight gain and other symptoms I started again and have not been able to quit for more than 2 or 3 days at a time.With weed I stopped cold turkey due to invasion of privacy testing at work and have had no problems and that is with my wife still smoking in front of me. This is just another attempt of the US government to keep pot and those who smoke in a bad light and to keep the 50 year old myths about marijuana in the uninformed publics eye. Shame on you, why don’t you so- called researchers spend some time and money on curing some ailments instead of running down an herb that has never been attributed to any deaths in the history of this country. Tobacco killed 435,000 people in 2006 alone but I guess that since part of this study was done in Winston-Salem (home of R.J. Reynolds) it’s OK for tobacco to kill and still be legal.. How much money did RJR put in to this study I wonder?
The results are in Western Scientists and Doctors need to go back to School and smoke a few joints.Scientists and doctors need to open their ears eyes and hearts and stop being dictated to by fascist Western Governments.
These results don’t surprise me. I work in a drug detox treatment clinic and sometimes it’s hard to tell those recovering from marijuana addiction from those with tobacco. Fortunately both are easily dealt with, with enough courage and the right treatments for each individual patient. I just wish the government did more to encourage people to get help.
Tabacco withdrawals in my opinion would be more difficult than pot. Tabacco contains nicotine which is highly addictive, but pot however is not addictive. At least is not as addictive as tobacco. You wouldn’t need a drug rehab center to quit marijuana. A recent study made by Cliffside Malibu showed that the THC that it contains is not addictive to your body, like acid.
Let someone have anything that they like for an extended period of time and then take it away and see what happens!
This study is a joke. P.S. if you smoke the good stuff it only takes a couple of puffs and saves on your body.
Nonsense! I smoked pot each single day for about 30 years. Then I had to migrate to a country where pot was not available. I stopped. No turkey. But I still cant stop smoking cigs. I am a living proof that the study is false!