Genetic Counselling in the Prevention of Mental Health Consequences of Cannabis Use

Summary

Severe mental illness (SMI) refers to the most burdensome psychiatric conditions. The need to pre-empt the onset of SMI is pressing because once SMI develops, quality of life is poor and available treatments have limited efficacy. Most risk factors for SMI are either unchangeable (e.g., genetics) or difficult to alter (e.g., low socio-economic status). In contrast, cannabis use is one specific risk factor that could be avoided. Certain individuals are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of cannabis. Genetic factors can help us identify these high-risk individuals. One in three individuals are carriers of a higher-risk genetic variant, and cannabis users with this genotype are at up to 7-fold increased risk of developing schizophrenia. In our study, genetic counselling will be provided to participants by a board-certified genetic counsellor. During the genetic counselling session, participants will have the option to receive their genotype. Participants will be counselled regarding their individualized risk of developing and of not developing SMI based on family history, whether or not they choose to use cannabis, and genotype (if the participants accept the genetic test results). The investigators hypothesize that this intervention will reduce exposure to cannabis compared to the youth who are not offered the intervention.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

* Enrolment in the Families Overcoming Risks and Building Opportunities for Well-being (FORBOW) study.
* Age between 12 and 21 years.
* Knowledge of English sufficient to benefit from the intervention.
* Capacity to provide informed consent at most recent FORBOW assessment.
* Provision of consent to be contacted about future studies at most recent FORBOW assessment.

Exclusion Criteria:

* A diagnosis of severe mental illness (psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, severe/recurrent depression) at baseline
* Autism or intellectual disability of a degree that interferes with assessment (IQ \< 70)

Conditions7

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