Does marijuana cause depression?
I think in youth there is a well described amotivational syndrome which has elements of depression in them. I would not recommend psychoactive drugs for any youth except under very controlled conditions. Say perhaps for treatment of ADHD or something like that. The brain is still developing right on up to the early twenties and marijuana use by high school or younger children tends to lead to some withdrawal from activities with other kids. There is always the stigma that they might be found out to be a druggie or something like that. So there is a lot of reasons why depression or amotivational syndrome is seen in younger people using marijuana. In adults however, I think it is more commonly used as an antidepressant or to treat depression, self-treat depression. Then we see depression caused by marijuana. Obviously if a person is depressed and has poor social relations, the use of any drug that might interfere with that, could worsen the depression. But I do not think marijuana contri
