Cannabis during pregnancy bumps psychosis risk in offspring

Pregnant women who use cannabis may slightly increase the risk their unborn child will develop psychosis later in life, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. "Our research shows that prenatal marijuana exposure after maternal knowledge of pregnancy is associated with a small increase in psychosis proneness during middle childhood or about age 10," said Jeremy Fine, an undergraduate majoring in psychological & brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and the study's lead author. The findings come on the heels of several national studies documenting a dramatic increase in marijuana usage by pregnant women, including a 2018 study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis that found past-month marijuana use among pregnant mothers in the United States increased by 75 percent between 2002 (2.85 percent) and 2016 (4.98 percent).