Study Confirms AKT1 Genotype Contributes to Risk of Cannabis Psychosis

The ability of cannabis to produce psychosis is an important public health concern. Some studies have suggested that cannabis exposure during adolescence may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.

For these reasons, it would be valuable if a biological test could be developed that predicted the risk of developing psychosis in people who abuse cannabis or use marijuana as a medication.

A recent study has implicated a variation in the gene that codes for a protein called RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase in the risk for cannabis psychosis. However, independent verification of these finding is critical for genetic associations with complex genetic traits, like cannabis-related psychosis, because these findings are difficult to replicate.

Dr Forti’s team carried out a case control study to investigate variation in the AKT1 gene and cannabis use in increasing the risk of psychosis.

“We studied the AKT1 gene as this is involved in dopamine signaling which is known to be abnormal in psychosis. Our sample comprised 489 patients with their first episode of psychosis and 278 healthy controls,” explained Dr Forti, who, with colleagues, reports on the results in the journal Biological Psychiatry.