[Neurobiology of cannabis--recent data enlightening driving disturbances].
J Costentin
Annales pharmaceutiques francaises May 2006 DOI: 10.1016/s0003-4509(06)75308-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Cannabis |
| Key findings | Argues that rising THC potency, earlier cannabis use, and new neurobiological evidence reveal long-lasting cerebral effects and risks including cognitive and driving impairment, psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, psychosis, and schizophrenia, potentiation of alcohol effects, and links to heroin dependence, warranting a radical change in public communication about cannabis. |
Abstract
During the last decades a new landscape of cannabis has been designed on account of: the increase in its use the greater youth of its users; the increase in the content of its main active constituent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and a lot of new epidemiological and neurobiological data. THC displays an exceptional lipophilicity, allowing its cerebral storage, leading to long lasting effects, by far more lasting than its presence in blood, and beyond the period throughout the intoxicated people feel a disablement. This is linked to its slow release from brain areas in which large proportion of spare receptors exists (reserve receptors). THC disturbs cognition and various skills required in driving. It may be responsible for psychiatric troubles: anxiety, depression, suicide attempt, psychotic attack, triggering of schizophrenia. It potentiates the alcohol effects and incites to alcohol drinking. It displays close relationships with dependence to heroin. This new landscape of cannabis urges to make a radical alteration in the public communication about this drug of abuse as it has yet collected so many troubles, accidents or tragedies.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on cannabis, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Causal association between cannabis and psychosis: examination of the evidence | 2004 | Review | |
| Cannabis sativa: A comprehensive ethnopharmacological review of a medicinal plant with a long history. General (historical and pharmacological review) | 2018 | Review | |
| Psychiatric effects of cannabis | 2001 | Review | |
| Beyond THC: The New Generation of Cannabinoid Designer Drugs | 2011 | Review | |
| Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an antipsychotic drug | 2006 | Review |