Disturbances of visual information processing in early states of psychosis and experimental delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol altered states of consciousness.
Schizophrenia research December 1, 2006 Dagmar Koethe, Christoph W Gerth, Miriam A Neatby et al.
In people with schizophrenia, in the prodromal phase, and in healthy volunteers given synthetic delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), performance on a test of visual information processing (the Binocular Depth Inversion Illusion Test) was similarly impaired, and all three groups differed significantly from healthy controls who received no drug. On the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the THC-treated group and the prodromal group did not differ significantly, while both differed from the schizophrenia group and from controls. The findings suggest that THC-induced altered states can model psychotic disorders, especially their prodromal states, and help explain the pro-psychotic effects of high-THC cannabis.