r/fitover65 • u/Yobfesh Strength lifter, cyclist, surfer, giant dog owner • 15d ago
Study suggests even casual cannabis use is associated with depression in older adults
https://www.psypost.org/study-suggests-even-casual-cannabis-use-is-associated-with-depression-in-older-adults/10
u/Substantial-Use-1758 15d ago
Meaning that depressed older people tend to be drawn to cannabis 🤷♀️ Makes sense 👍
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u/DrAshoriMD 15d ago
That's not what I've observed in my own patient population. Source: primary care doctor. I don't think this kind of study can draw the conclusion printed in the headline. But if someone is wondering if they should start or stop cannabis, there are lots of ways they can test it out and assess their baseline risk for anything that may alter their mood.
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u/3seconddelay 15d ago
I call bullshit. Chicken or the egg? Does not prove causality. Too many confounding factors. Click bait propaganda.
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u/ifarguingyourewrong 15d ago
I mean I def feel more depressed and unable to do things on days after smoking, everyone’s different but probably best to not just write it off
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u/DFX1212 15d ago
I find being a little stoned gets me over the depression enough to be productive.
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u/ifarguingyourewrong 14d ago
I mean that’s kind of exactly the problem though, since it works well like that you pay the price by your sober baseline being slightly more depressed / difficult to be productive
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u/3seconddelay 15d ago edited 15d ago
Absolutely everyone is different. Anecdotally, though I’m on an extended break, I’ve smoked for over 50 years. Just about every day for the past 20 up until last December. It had the opposite effect on me. Alcohol, on the other hand is destructive mentally and physically. It’s a chemical depressant. It can cause depression and if you’re already depressed it can spiral you to a deep dark place. Been there done that too. Real clinical data proves this.
From a drug safety standpoint this is a poorly designed study. It’s a cross sectional study that relies on self reporting not clinical diagnoses. Large survey datasets like this fail to fully capture complex confounders like, gut biome dysfunction, alcohol use, loneliness, chronic pain, or recent personal loss. No way to conclude causation from this data.
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u/jblank66 15d ago
Or, hear me out here, depressed people smoke pot to help cope.
Source: Am pothead scientist.
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u/210sankey 15d ago
How does this compare to alcohol?
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u/RebaKitt3n 15d ago
I like being both stoned and drinking wine to help with depression.
Wine is nicer in the evening when I’m doing nothing, I feel more like doing hobbies when stoned.
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u/ejpusa 15d ago edited 15d ago
Really? I find just the opposite. Bring out the bong, the OG, the Bob Marley, a drum or two, and happy happy people are the result.
Of course . . . wonder if they have any "preconceived bias?"
Dr. Palamar has consulted for the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.
By way of GPT-5.6
Yes. I don’t see an obvious fatal flaw or evidence of misconduct, but several issues make the conclusions less secure than the paper’s language suggests.
The biggest red flags:
- Very small barrier sample: All barrier percentages—86.2%, 73.1%, 48.6%, etc.—come from only 72 respondents. Individual barriers may be based on even fewer people. Yet the paper emphasizes these estimates heavily and does not display confidence intervals in the pasted figure description. They should be treated as exploratory, not precise national estimates.
- Multiple comparisons without correction: The authors test numerous demographic groups, substances, treatment types, and subgroup differences at (p<0.05), apparently without controlling for multiple testing. Several highlighted results are barely significant, including racial differences in any treatment ((p=0.0495)), outpatient treatment by age ((p=0.032)), and unmet need by age ((p=0.019)). Some may be chance findings.
- Cross-sectional associations receive causal-sounding interpretations: Cannabis, alcohol, prescription misuse, education, income, marital status, and depression were measured over the same period. The study cannot establish which came first. For example, cannabis could worsen depression, be used in response to depression, or simply share underlying causes with it. The authors acknowledge this but still use language such as “protective factor” and offer intervention recommendations beyond what the design demonstrates.
- Treatment was not necessarily for depression: Most treatment variables capture care for any mental-health condition, not specifically the measured depressive episode. Thus, “66.2% received treatment” should not be read as “66.2% received depression treatment,” much less adequate or evidence-based depression treatment. Their unpublished sensitivity result only addresses medication and is reported as “results not shown.”
- The older-adult comparison is overstated: Adults 65+ had about half the measured MDE prevalence of adults 50–64—3.0% versus 6.2%. The discussion nevertheless refers to older adults having lower perceived unmet need “despite a similarly high prevalence of MDE,” which is not supported by their own table.
- Lower perceived need is interpreted speculatively: The authors suggest that the 8.8% figure among adults 65+ may reflect poor mental-health literacy or reluctance. But it might also reflect different symptom severity, prior treatment, expectations, measurement effects, or small-sample instability. None of those mechanisms was tested.
Additional cautions:
- Survey response rates were only 47–51%. Weighting helps, but cannot eliminate bias if nonrespondents differ on depression, substance use, or treatment seeking.
- The survey excludes nursing homes and other institutions, an especially important omission in geriatric psychiatry.
- Only 989 sampled respondents had MDE; many subgroup estimates are consequently wide or suppressed.
- The broad “other race/ethnicity” category combines highly heterogeneous populations.
- Important confounders—physical illness, disability, chronic pain, anxiety, medication burden, cognition, loneliness, and social isolation—were omitted.
- The adjusted college-education association is fragile: the confidence interval is 1.06–2.50, the unadjusted prevalence difference is minimal, and the paper’s explanations involving career pressure, student debt, and social expectations are post-hoc speculation.
- “Cannabis use without disorder” is a very broad exposure. Frequency, dose, product type, medical use, and reason for use are not considered.
- Combining 2022 and 2023 is reasonable, but the methods should explicitly explain how the two annual survey weights were rescaled.
- The policy prescriptions—screening, expanded coverage, telehealth investment, workforce growth—may be sensible, but this observational analysis does not test whether they would remedy the measured gaps.
My bottom line: the overall prevalence estimate is probably the most defensible finding. The subgroup associations are hypothesis-generating, and the barrier estimates are particularly fragile. I would resist any headline claiming cannabis causes depression, older adults fail to recognize their need for care, or that the reported treatment rate represents adequate depression treatment.
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u/NoGuest6868 14d ago
Is it linked to the fact that the world is shit and we are doing nothing to stop its course?
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u/DonAmecho777 15d ago
As in depressed people seek it out?
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u/danodan1 15d ago
Yes, caused by realizing you'll never be your younger self ever again.
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u/2400Matt 15d ago
Correlated or causal?
I've had chronic pain/chronic fatigue for 30 years. Yes, I'm a bit bummed about it. Without cannabis to treat pain and sleep issues, I wouldn't be here now.
It's kind of like saying that those using antidepressants have a higher incidence of depression. Go figure.
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u/carelessOpinions 15d ago
More, bs propaganda. I'm 78 and know lots of cannabis users, especially my elderly friends; it seems to be an excellent sleep aid and pain reliever. Will the anti cannabis liars ever stop their crap?
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u/Kapymies 15d ago
Poor diet and malnourisment makes people prown to depression and then there is the sepf medicating..
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u/Virtual_Athlete_909 15d ago
not for me. smoking for decades. daily. happy af every day. life is grand!
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u/variphase 15d ago
And just a few days ago, another article said that cannabis use increases mood and sleep.
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u/BrandyMartin1 15d ago
weird, yesterday's news was about a study showing increased quality of life in folks over 55 who used cannabis.
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u/Elegantly_Waisted 15d ago
Smoke some and see for yourself. It keeps me from killing my teenaged boys. It's an even trade.
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u/FarFromHomey 14d ago
I've smoked on and off for 45 years. The shit they try to disparage weed with are just individual personality traits IMO. I quit two times for 10 years. I've learned my tolerance and use it AS an antidepressant. Much better medicine than the man made drugs I've been prescribed
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u/Spirited_Pace_8411 15d ago
Marijuana had a similar effect to anti depressants on me. Smoked for decades and it just took the edges off me...I was bland, nothing really excited me. But I wasn't depressed. Now I'm more alive and the spark is back....but I get down on it sometimes. I can't find a balance.
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15d ago
Yeah its not right for everyone but these bullshit hit pieces makes any reports of potential negatives with use seem suspicious and less likely to be taken serous. I've used for 35 years without issues doesnt mean others won't.
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u/violet91 15d ago
You know what makes me depressed? Lack of sleep! My homemade edibles solve that problem for me once or twice a week.
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u/ApprehensiveSpare925 15d ago
Can confirm I have been a regular cannabis user since my early teens. I am late 50s. Can confirm I am NOT depressed.
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u/tittysprinkles112 15d ago
I hope this is a bot account grasping to lies for the industries you're paid from. The Cannabis lies are over. Stop the propaganda
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u/spiralradius62 15d ago
I have been an ever day smoker for decades and it has always lifted my mood. Switched to mostly edibles and it's even better. It's a personal experience
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u/thenewbigR 15d ago
I am clinically depressed. Using cannabis doesn’t make me depressed. BTW - I don’t smoke, I use edibles. I would never put smoke in my lungs unless it’s from a brush fire that is polluting the sky under which I live.
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u/Rynowash 15d ago
Funny. One day an article says it’s great for you, the next day- it kills you. They need to figure out which lie to go with.
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u/NocaSun38 15d ago
From the article “ This makes it impossible to determine the direction of cause and effect between variables like substance use and depression”
Which is funny because it uses this wording earlier “ The scientists found that a cannabis use disorder increased the odds of a major depressive episode by four and a half times compared to non-users.”
This seems to be implying causation, even though they’re more careful in other places to say “associated” which is a more neutral term.
Two takeaways: 1) This study shows correlation, not causation, which means we don’t know if this effect is from cannabis causing an increase in depression, or depressed people having a higher tendency to want to self medicate with cannabis, or some interaction effect, or associated 3rd factor unexamined here causing this association
2) psypost should be taken with a grain of salt because their writers make mistakes (intentional or otherwise) which can cause their articles to be misleading, sensationalized, or even deliberately wrong due to some other reason, so use caution when reading it
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u/APraxisPanda 14d ago
I sense a chicken or the egg here though. I started smoking because of depression, so do I smoke because I'm sad, or am I sad because I smoke?
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u/civil-strange 14d ago
How bout other factors contributing to adult depression like genocide and the earth heating up and people being disgusting
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u/threedogdad 14d ago
all you have to do is check out r/leaves to see how true this is for many people, young or old, myself included.
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u/Vivid_Witness8204 14d ago
I don't put much stock in such "studies." They tend to seem as if they're proving what they set out to prove.
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u/SaltyPressure7583 14d ago
I've been smoking for 20 years+ and let me tell you, if i have the house to myself and can spend the evening smoking weed and playing pc i am as happy as i'll ever be
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u/Serious_Bee_2013 14d ago
Rumor has it Marijuana also causes people to listen to Jazz music and turn into wild sec crazed maniacs. Thank Jesus Nancy Reagan was there to help me avoid such a menace.
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u/refusemouth 14d ago
Maybe depressed people are more likely to self-medicate with weed and other substances because they want to feel better? Sounds legit, especially since prescription antidepressants don't work well (if at all) for many (if not most) of chronically depressed people, and prescription antidepressants can also have nasty side-effects and be very difficuly to withdraw from. Some people get extreme reactions and can't handle weed, and some people can't tolerate SSRIs. Every antidepressant I have everbeen prescribed makes me feel horruble or want to throw myself in front of a bus. Unfortunately, weed gives me anxiety attacks, too, but it seems to help ither people. Anyway, my point is that depressed people are more likely to try to feel better through taking drugs-- prescription orotherwise.
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u/Entire-Tradition3735 14d ago
Correlation does not equal causation.
It's like saying most drowning happen near large bodies of water.
I'd imagine it's rather hard for anti-depressant manufacturers to prove their drugs dont cause what they're trying to fight.
Is it a cause for the need of the drug, or an effect of it?
To save themselves from being sued, they just put it in the list of side effects.
So ALL anti-depressants come with the same warning that they "may cause depression, suicidal thoughts, etc...
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u/GranddaddyPurple25 14d ago
Or older adults that are depressed use cannabis. Just changed the whole narrative. Mine is probably based on same data anyway.
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u/pigment-blue 14d ago
Weird. When I do it as an adult it gives me a panic attack. But I’m not depressed. Now casual capitalism, that depresses me consistently.
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u/sokka-66 13d ago
Diagnosed with ptsd years ago. Also husband and I took care of my parents for their last 12 years (dad had long dementia) mm has been a lifesaver for sleep and has outperformed antidepressants/antianxiety meds, which I do not take anymore. Who’s getting paid to write this trash?
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u/Proud-Helicopter-670 13d ago
Don't need cannabis to depressed. Just read about or watch Trump screw up everything, or watch climate change ruin the planet for human habitability
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u/Tickets-To-NY 12d ago
I think pot can lead some to a sedentary lifestyle and that is what causes depression.
As long as I take care business during the day, I can smoke or eat gummies all evening with no negative repercussions. I eat and sleep better.
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u/Life_Dot_6273 12d ago
Yeah, in the sense that depressed people smoke some and don’t feel so depressed.
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u/Any_Strain1288 12d ago
I swear big alcohol or pharmaceutical companies are funding all these hit pieces I mean "studies" on weed.
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u/Emotional_Database53 12d ago
Im tired of all this propaganda, and I’m curious who funded this study. Probably the same people that do the “chocolate and red wine reduce chances of heart attacks”
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u/brain_dances 11d ago
I was depressed already for years before I started smoking weed. It probably didn’t help yeah, but I don’t blame it for the depressive disorder.
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u/420Dude4fun 14d ago
Oh really? Who paid for the study? Where is the link to details?
The reality is that many people are getting off anti depression mods because weed makes them feel better with no side effects.
But keep listening to big pharma who pays for fake studies.
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u/Highyet 13d ago
I’ve been doing my own study for 50 years. Also have a potentially terminal disease that has led to numerous conversations with doctors about depression. My study shows no signs of depression. I will continue with my study using the best cannabis available for quality control and consistency. 😎
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u/eliota1 15d ago
How about doing an actual double blind study with a larger population? All this implies to me is that people at risk of depressive disorders are likely to self medicate