Cannabidiol reverses the reduction in social interaction produced by low dose Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol in rats.
Daniel Thomas Malone, Dennis Jongejan, David Alan Taylor
Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior August 2009 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2009.04.010 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Preclinical experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Pairs of rats |
| Interventions | THC CBD |
| Dose | THC 1 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg; CBD 20 mg/kg |
| Duration | 10 min open field assessment |
| Topics | Cannabis CBD |
| Key findings | CBD (20 mg/kg) reversed the reduction in social interaction caused by low-dose THC (1 mg/kg) in rats, while CBD alone had no significant effect. High-dose THC (10 mg/kg) alone did not significantly affect social interaction, but combined high-dose CBD and THC reduced social interaction and locomotor activity, which the authors suggest may explain the social impairment. |
Abstract
While Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive constituent of the cannabis plant, a non-psychoactive constituent is cannabidiol (CBD). CBD has been implicated as a potential treatment of a number of disorders including schizophrenia and epilepsy and has been included with THC in a 1:1 combination for the treatment of conditions such as neuropathic pain. This study investigated the effect of THC and CBD, alone or in combination, on some objective behaviours of rats in the open field. Pairs of rats were injected with CBD or vehicle followed by THC or vehicle and behaviour in the open field was assessed for 10 min. In vehicle pretreated rats THC (1 mg/kg) significantly reduced social interaction between rat pairs. Treatment with CBD had no significant effect alone, but pretreatment with CBD (20 mg/kg) reversed the THC-induced decreases in social interaction. A higher dose of THC (10 mg/kg) produced no significant effect on social interaction. However, the combination of high dose CBD and high dose THC significantly reduced social interaction between rat pairs, as well as producing a significant decrease in locomotor activity. This data suggests that CBD can reverse social withdrawal induced by low dose THC, but the combination of high dose THC and CBD impairs social interaction, possibly by decreasing locomotor activity.
Comparable studies
Other preclinical and animal studies on CBD, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cited by 18
- Beyond THC: The New Generation of Cannabinoid Designer Drugs Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2011
- Cannabis, a cause for anxiety? A critical appraisal of the anxiogenic and anxiolytic properties Journal of Translational Medicine October 2, 2020
- Effects of cannabinoid drugs on the deficit of prepulse inhibition of startle in an animal model of schizophrenia: the SHR strain Frontiers in Pharmacology 2014
- 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: A Future Approach to the Metabolic Profiling of Psychedelics in Human Biofluids? Frontiers in Psychiatry 2021
- THC induced similar physiological effects on HIV transgenic rats and their controls without affecting HIV-induced deficits in effortful motivation. Journal of Cannabis Research January 2, 2026
and 13 more in the library
Cites 2
- Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-induced catalepsy-like immobilization is mediated by decreased 5-HT neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens due to the action of glutamate-containing neurons. Neuroscience January 24, 2008
- Interactions between THC and cannabidiol in mouse models of cannabinoid activity. Psychopharmacology June 2006