Drug-Induced Psychosis: How to Avoid Star Gazing in Schizophrenia Research by Looking at More Obvious Sources of Light
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience January 1, 2011 Alessandra Paparelli, Marta Di Forti, Paul D. Morrison et al. 217 citations
Schizophrenia is best understood as a syndrome rather than a single disease, with high heritability and multiple genetic and environmental factors pushing individuals over a threshold into clinical expression. Evidence that certain drugs can induce schizophrenia-like psychosis has been neglected as an environmental factor. Over the past 60 years, understanding the link between drug abuse and psychosis has shaped the modern view that liability to psychosis, including schizophrenia, is distributed continuously through the general population, similar to hypertension and diabetes. This review examines hypotheses arising from the association between common psychotomimetic drugs (LSD, amphetamines, cannabis, phencyclidine) and schizophrenia.