Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
January 1, 2026
Jack E Henningfield, Sandra D Comer, Matthew L Banks et al.
5 citations
A panel of abuse potential experts convened to discuss challenges in assessing the abuse potential of novel drugs, especially psychedelics and cannabinoids. The U.S. Controlled Substances Act scheduling process, intended to balance public safety with medicinal access, can be overly restrictive when abuse potential is overestimated, as postmarketing evaluations have suggested for some substances. Existing methods recommended by the FDA are generally reliable for many drug categories but require modifications—such as behavioral economic assessments and broader outcome measures in human abuse potential studies—to accurately characterize newer agents. The commentary emphasizes the need for updated approaches to ensure valid scheduling decisions that protect public health without hindering access to beneficial medicines.
Psychedelic Medicine
September 6, 2023
Marc J. Weintraub, Jessica K Jeffrey, Charles S. Grob et al.
4 citations
A trial is planned to gather initial evidence on whether combining psilocybin with cognitive behavioral therapy is feasible, safe, acceptable, and has psychosocial benefits for people with major depressive disorder. The results will guide larger randomized trials to test this combined treatment's effects and explore how it might work through changes in thinking and emotion. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with ID NCT05227612.
March 15, 2023
Will Lawn, Xuejun Hao, Anna B. Konova et al.
preprint
Near-daily cannabis users show normal neural value encoding for cannabis but disrupted encoding for non-drug rewards like snacks, even when their actual choices are equivalent. The study used a neuroeconomic framework to measure brain activity while participants chose between varying amounts of cannabis or snacks and money. Value signals for cannabis appeared in brain regions typically involved in reward processing (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, dorsal posterior cingulate cortex), but these signals were weaker or absent for snacks. The findings support the idea that problematic substance use involves dysregulated neural valuation of non-drug rewards.
Psychological Medicine
January 1, 2024
Simon Kapler, Laura Adery, Gil D Hoftman et al.
Cannabis use is linked to increased rates of psychotic disorders and worsening of symptoms in people with psychosis spectrum disorders, including those at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P). While causality remains uncertain, cannabis may be a modifiable risk factor for conversion to psychotic disorder in CHR-P individuals. Current evidence supports a harm reduction approach rather than abstinence alone: reducing frequency of use, choosing lower delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol content or cannabidiol-only products, avoiding edibles with inconsistent potency, improving patient-provider communication about cannabis use and psychotic-like experiences, and using a collaborative, individualized therapeutic approach. Whether these interventions lower conversion risk is unknown.
Carolyn M. Amir, Dara G. Ghahremani, Sarah E. Chang et al.
preprint
Prenatal cannabis exposure is linked to psychotic-like experiences in youth, and this relationship may involve disrupted reward-related brain function. In a large longitudinal study of children aged 9–10 at baseline, those with prenatal cannabis exposure (652 children) showed blunted neural response to reward anticipation, which was associated with psychotic-like experiences and predicted psychosis symptoms in middle adolescence. Dampened behavioral reward sensitivity was also associated with psychotic-like experiences across follow-ups. Trait-level measures of reward motivation and impulsivity were more strongly linked to psychotic-like experiences in children with prenatal cannabis exposure. Blunted activation in reward-related brain regions may be a biomarker for increased psychosis risk.