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Epidemiology: what it is and why it matters

INVITED COMMENTARY ON ... CANNABIS USE AND PSYCHOSIS

Brendan D. Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at University College Dublin (Department of Adult Psychiatry, University College Dublin, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, 62/63 Eccles Street, Dublin 7. Email: brendankelly35{at}gmail.com). Research interests include the epidemiology of psychosis and relationships between mental illness and social factors. He was joint winner of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Gaskell medal and prize in 2003.

Epidemiology is the study of why, how and how often diseases occur in given populations. There is now a sufficiency of epidemiological evidence for psychiatrists to warn that cannabis use could increase risk of psychosis in later life. The policy impact of this accumulated epidemiological evidence is difficult to predict. There is a strong need to develop models of mental health policy-making that incorporate careful interpretation of epidemiological evidence.

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