Mary Cannon | |
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Born | Ireland |
Education | MD, PhD |
Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Known for | Study of risk factors for psychosis in youth and her views on cannabis |
Children | 5 children |
Awards | Doctor Award in Psychiatry, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland Clinician Scientist Award, Health Research Board |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Psychiatry |
Institutions | Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Beaumont Hospital, Dublin |
Website | pi |
Mary Cannon is an Irish psychiatrist, research scientist, public figure, and former member of the Cannabis Risk Alliance. She has received the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland's "Doctors Award" for psychiatry and is among the most highly cited scientists in the world. Cannon is known for her views on cannabis, being described as 'anti-cannabis'. She is best known in the field of psychiatry for her study of the risk factors for mental illness in young people.
As an undergraduate, Cannon studied medicine at University College Dublin and trained as a psychiatrist with Eadbhard O'Callaghan at the St John of God Hospital in Dublin. [1] She then won an "advanced training fellowship" from the Wellcome Trust to study with Robin Murray at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. [2]
Cannon cites her mother, a schoolteacher, and principal, as a possible influence: "My mother could predict which kids would have difficulties and which ones would do well", recalls Cannon. "I always found it interesting that the seeds are sown so early"." [1]
Cannon is an associate professor of psychiatry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, as well as a consulting psychiatrist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. [1]
Cannon researches risk factors for psychosis and other mental illnesses in young people. [2] She and her research group have made important discoveries about the correlations of traumatic events in early childhood, including prenatal infection and childhood bullying, to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia in adults. [3] [4] Cannon also studies the mental health of Irish youth. Her group's discovery that more than one-fifth of Irish 11- to 13-year-olds have experienced "auditory hallucinations" (hearing voices) attracted significant media attention. [5] She has expressed the desire that her findings will lessen the stigma around auditory hallucinations, and will help to "remove the boundary" between youth and adult psychiatric services and research. [1]
Cannon has published a number of studies on the health impacts of cannabis. [6] She has a particular interest in the link between adolescent use of the substance and psychosis.
Cannon has been deeply involved in a number of Irish and international campaigns against the legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis use.
In 2019, Mary Cannon told the Irish Times that a liberal 'cannabis agenda' is being actively 'pushed' from within the Irish Government and warned against any potential changes to Irish legislation. [7]
Cannon was heavily involved in the New Zealand public debate around the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum. She wrote a piece for the New Zealand Herald in support of the 'no' campaign titled 'Cannabis is harmful to young adults and teens' in which she claimed cannabis use is linked to a loss of IQ, unemployment, school drop-out and dependence on social welfare. [8]
During the 2020 public debate in New Zealand, Cannon collaborated with Family First New Zealand, a 'conservative Christian lobby group' in opposition to the proposed changes to New Zealand law. She appeared on Family First's official YouTube channel as part of their 'Say no to dope' campaign to discuss the harmful impacts of cannabis use in order to bolster support for a no vote on the referendum. [9]
In 2021, Cannon received international attention after she accused Canadian actor and comedian Seth Rogan of being 'cannabis dependent' on social media platform Twitter, to which Rogan responded by saying 'cannabis use deserves to be glorified'. [10]
In 2022, TheJournal revealed through a Freedom of Information Act 2014 request that Cannon was a member of the 'anti-cannabis group' known as the 'Cannabis Risk Alliance'. TheJournal found that the group was skirting Ireland's lobbying regulations through the use of a 'loophole' which allowed them to hold 'secret meetings' with Ireland's then Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Well Being and the National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan. [12] During one of the meetings, in which Cannon was a listed attendee, the group argued against the existence of medical cannabis, stating that it is a 'trojan horse' which 'misleads the public [11] '.
In 2014, Cannon was the only woman among eleven Irish researchers named to the Thomson Reuters "World's Most Influential Scientific Minds" report. This report honours the 3,000 most highly cited scientists in the world. [13]
Cannon has also won the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland's "Doctor Award" in Psychiatry, and the UK Health Research Board's "Clinician Scientist Award" fellowship. [1] [14] In 2022 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy. [15]
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior that is inappropriate for a given situation. There may also be sleep problems, social withdrawal, lack of motivation, and difficulties carrying out daily activities. Psychosis can have serious adverse outcomes.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdrawal and flat affect. Symptoms typically develop gradually, begin during young adulthood, and in many cases are never resolved. There is no objective diagnostic test; diagnosis is based on observed behavior, a psychiatric history that includes the person's reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person. For a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the described symptoms need to have been present for at least six months or one month. Many people with schizophrenia have other mental disorders, especially substance use disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and obsessive–compulsive disorder.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal thought processes and an unstable mood. This diagnosis requires symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder: either bipolar disorder or depression. The main criterion is the presence of psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks without any mood symptoms. Schizoaffective disorder can often be misdiagnosed when the correct diagnosis may be psychotic depression, bipolar I disorder, schizophreniform disorder, or schizophrenia. This is a problem as treatment and prognosis differ greatly for most of these diagnoses.
Richard Bentall is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
Jim van Os is a Dutch academic and psychiatrist. He is Professor of Psychiatry and medical manager of the Brain Center at Utrecht University Medical Center, the Netherlands.
Sir Robin MacGregor Murray FRS is a Scottish psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. He has treated patients with schizophrenia and bipolar illness referred to the National Psychosis Unit of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust because they fail to respond to treatment, or cannot get appropriate treatment, locally; he sees patients privately if they are unable to obtain an NHS referral.
Risk factors of schizophrenia include many genetic and environmental phenomena. The prevailing model of schizophrenia is that of a special neurodevelopmental disorder with no precise boundary or single cause. Schizophrenia is thought to develop from very complex gene–environment interactions with vulnerability factors. The interactions of these risk factors are intricate, as numerous and diverse medical insults from conception to adulthood can be involved. The combination of genetic and environmental factors leads to deficits in the neural circuits that affect sensory input and cognitive functions. Historically, this theory has been broadly accepted but impossible to prove given ethical limitations. The first definitive proof that schizophrenia arises from multiple biological changes in the brain was recently established in human tissue grown from patient stem cells, where the complexity of disease was found to be "even more complex than currently accepted" due to cell-by-cell encoding of schizophrenia-related neuropathology.
Dual diagnosis is the condition of having a mental illness and a comorbid substance use disorder. There is considerable debate surrounding the appropriateness of using a single category for a heterogeneous group of individuals with complex needs and a varied range of problems. The concept can be used broadly, for example depression and alcohol use disorder, or it can be restricted to specify severe mental illness and substance use disorder, or a person who has a milder mental illness and a drug dependency, such as panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder and is dependent on opioids. Diagnosing a primary psychiatric illness in people who use substances is challenging as substance use disorder itself often induces psychiatric symptoms, thus making it necessary to differentiate between substance induced and pre-existing mental illness.
Region Hovedstadens Psykiatri is a psychiatric hospital with centers spread all around the capital region of Denmark, mainly consisting of Copenhagen, northern Zealand, and Bornholm.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions.
Professor Thomas Lynch was the first Professor of Psychiatry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He was also the first to develop a psychiatric unit in a general hospital in the Republic of Ireland.
Barbara A. Cornblatt is Professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. She is known for her research on serious mental disorders, with a specific focus on psychosis and schizophrenia. Her efforts to find treatments to help youth with mental illness led to the development of the Recognition and Prevention Program, which she founded in 1998.
The long-term effects of cannabis have been the subject of ongoing debate. Because cannabis is illegal in most countries, clinical research presents a challenge and there is limited evidence from which to draw conclusions. In 2017, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report summarizing much of the published literature on health effects of cannabis, into categories regarded as conclusive, substantial, moderate, limited and of no or insufficient evidence to support an association with a particular outcome.
Patrick Dennistoun McGorry FAA FASSA FAHMS FRCP FRANZCP is an Irish-born Australian psychiatrist known for his development of the early intervention services for emerging mental disorders in young people.
The National Psychosis Unit is a national treatment centre for patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, in the United Kingdom. The unit is a tertiary referral centre in the National Health Service. It is located at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It is closely affiliated to the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and forms part of the Psychosis Clinical Academic Group of King's Health Partners.
The diagnosis of schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder, is based on criteria in either the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Clinical assessment of schizophrenia is carried out by a mental health professional based on observed behavior, reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person. Diagnosis is usually made by a psychiatrist. Associated symptoms occur along a continuum in the population and must reach a certain severity and level of impairment before a diagnosis is made. Schizophrenia has a prevalence rate of 0.3-0.7% in the United States
Glyn Lewis is a British professor of psychiatric epidemiology and the current head of the Division of Psychiatry at University College London
Celso Arango is a psychiatrist who has worked as a clinician, researcher, and educator in psychiatry and mental health, notably in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosis, and mental health promotion.
Louise Arseneault is a Canadian psychologist and Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, where she has taught since 2001.
St. John of God Hospital is an independent (private) psychiatric teaching hospital located in Stillorgan, Dublin, Ireland. The hospital is managed by the St. John of God Hospitaller Service Group, which is part of the international St. John of God Order that has more than 300 care centres in more than 50 countries. Hospitality, compassion, excellence, justice, and respect are the values of every centre of the St. John of God Order.
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