Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
April 2018
Briana J. Hempel, Matthew M Clasen, Katharine H Nelson et al.
Rising interest in medical marijuana has prompted research into its phytocannabinoid constituents, particularly Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Coadministration of CBD with THC has been shown to modulate a number of THC's effects, including its negative stimulus properties (e.g., anxiety, paranoia, psychosis) in a clinical setting. The present series of experiments extended...
Schizophrenia Research
April 1, 2018
Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Adina S. Fischer, Angela Henricks et al.
Nearly half of patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) have co-occurring cannabis use disorder (CUD), which has been associated with decreased treatment efficacy, increased risk of psychotic relapse, and poor global functioning. While reports on the effects of cannabis on cognitive performance in patients with SCZ have been mixed, study of brain networks related to executive function may clarify the...
Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
March 29, 2018
Nina Levar, Alan N. Francis, Matthew J. Smith et al.
33 citations
Introduction: Memory impairment is one of the most commonly reported effects of cannabis use, especially among those who initiate use earlier, perhaps due to the effects of delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol on cannabinoid (CB1) receptors in the brain. Studies have increasingly investigated whether cannabis use is associated with impairments in verbal memory, and with alterations in brain structures...
Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging
March 28, 2018
H. Abush, S. Ghose, Erin van Enkevort et al.
Associations between cannabis use and psychotic disorders suggest that cannabis may be a contributory risk factor in the neurobiology of psychosis. In this study, we examined brain structure characteristics, total and regional gray matter density (GMD), using Voxel Based Morphometry, in psychotic individuals, stratified by history of cannabis use (total n=109). We also contrasted GMD estimates...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
March 27, 2018
Ruth Braidwood, Samantha Mansell, Jon Waldron et al.
7 citations
Research suggests that daily cannabis users have impaired memory for past events, but it is not clear whether they are also impaired in prospective memory (PM) for future events. The present study examined prospective memory in daily cannabis users who were either dependent (n = 18) or non-dependent (n = 18), and compared them with non-using controls (n = 18). The effect of future event...
Psychological Medicine
March 23, 2018
Musa Basseer Sami, Caitlin Jade Notley, Christos Kouimtsidis et al.
25 citations
BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that cannabis-induced psychotic-like experiences may be a marker of psychosis proneness. The effect of such experiences on cannabis use has not systematically been examined. METHODS: We undertook a mixed-methods online survey of 1231 cannabis users (including 926 continued users) using the Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire. We examined the effect of psychotic-like...
Psychological Medicine
March 5, 2018
Sagnik Bhattacharyya, Thomas T. J. Sainsbury, Paul Allen et al.
16 citations
BACKGROUND: Cannabis and its main psychoactive ingredient δ-9-tetrahydrocannibidiol (THC) can induce transient psychotic symptoms in healthy individuals and exacerbate them in those with established psychosis. However, not everyone experience these effects, suggesting that certain individuals are particularly susceptible. The neural basis of this sensitivity to the psychotomimetic effects of...
Planta Medica
March 2018
Yan-Hong Wang, Bharathi Avula, Mahmoud A. Elsohly et al.
Cannabinoids are a group of terpenophenolic compounds in the medicinal plant Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae family). Cannabigerolic acid, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid A, cannabidiolic acid, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabigerol, cannabidiol, cannabichromene, and tetrahydrocannabivarin are major metabolites in the classification of different strains of C. sativa. Degradation or artifact...
Planta Medica
March 2018
Elsayed A Ibrahim, Waseem Gul, Shahbaz W Gul et al.
Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) is an annual herbaceous plant that belongs to the family Cannabaceae. Trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the two major phytocannabinoids accounting for over 40% of the cannabis plant extracts, depending on the variety. At the University of Mississippi, different strains of C. sativa, with different concentration ratios of CBD and...
Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
March 2018
Pamela Prini, Franceso Rusconi, Erica Zamberletti et al.
Increasing cannabis consumption among adolescents, studies that link its early use with mental illnesses, and the political debate on cannabis legalization together call for an urgent need to study molecular underpinnings of adolescent brain vulnerability. The emerging role of epigenetic mechanisms in psychiatric diseases led us to hypothesize that epigenetic alterations could play a role in...