The links are interesting, I'm glad there's ongoing work to explore the nature of the relationship that exists.
As the abstract hints, the difficulty lies in knowing what came first, the depression leading to increased substance use or the substance use leading to the depression.
Given the apparent ease of depressive symptoms in other research, my opinion is that increased depression leads to increased use - a sort of self-medication. Though with any mind-altering drug there is the capacity for unintended side effects and so any use of cannabis has to be thoroughly explored for safe dosage. And this question of whether it relieves or worsens depression needs to be answered.
The links are interesting, I'm glad there's ongoing work to explore the nature of the relationship that exists.
As the abstract hints, the difficulty lies in knowing what came first, the depression leading to increased substance use or the substance use leading to the depression.
Given the apparent ease of depressive symptoms in other research, my opinion is that increased depression leads to increased use - a sort of self-medication. Though with any mind-altering drug there is the capacity for unintended side effects and so any use of cannabis has to be thoroughly explored for safe dosage. And this question of whether it relieves or worsens depression needs to be answered.