Some drugs of abuse may produce dissociative symptoms, but this aspect has been understudied. We explored the dissociative potential of three recreational drugs (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cannabis, and cocaine) during intoxication and compared their effects to literature reports of dissociative states in various samples. Two placebo-controlled studies were conducted. In Study 1...
SuchttherapieAugust 20, 2015Maria Christiane Jockers-Scherübl, T Wolf, Johannes Rentzsch
Einleitung: Cannabis ist die am häufigsten konsumierte illegale Substanz weltweit. Selbst bei sinkender Gesamtzahl der Konsumenten ist die Anzahl der heavy consumers gleichbleibend hoch. Dies kann zu komorbiden psychischen Störungen führen, von denen Schizophrenien die schwierigsten sind und sogar durch Cannabis ausgelöst werden können. Auch Depressionen, Angststörungen, das...
Neuroscience LettersAugust 18, 2015Lindsay Silva, Lauren Harte-Hargrove, Sari Izenwasser et al.
Marijuana use by adolescents has been on the rise since the early 1990s. With recent legalization and decriminalization acts passed, cannabinoid exposure in adolescents will undoubtedly increase. Human studies are limited in their ability to examine underlying changes in brain biochemistry making rodent models valuable. Studies in adult and adolescent animals show region and sex specific...
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States and its use is rising. Nonetheless, scientific efforts to clarify the risk for addiction and other harm associated with marijuana use have been lacking. Maladaptive decision-making is a cardinal feature of addiction that is likely to emerge in heavy users. In particular, distorted subjective reward valuation related to...
Cannabis use is becoming more accepted in mainstream society. In this paper, we use Zinberg's classic theoretical framework of drug, set, and setting to elucidate how older adult cannabis users managed health, social and legal risks in a context of normalized cannabis use. We present selected findings from our qualitative study of Baby Boomer (born 1946-1964) cannabis users in the San Francisco...
When synthetic cannabinoid compounds became controlled by state and federal governments, different, noncontrolled compounds began to appear as marijuana substitutes. Unlike the scheduled cannabinoids, the newer compounds have not been characterized for potency and efficacy in preclinical studies. The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether some of the more recent synthetic...
Gamma (γ)-band oscillations play a key role in perception, associative learning, and conscious awareness and have been shown to be disrupted by cannabinoids in animal studies. The goal of this study was to determine whether cannabinoids disrupt γ-oscillations in humans and whether these effects relate to their psychosis-relevant behavioral effects. The acute, dose-related effects of...
Marijuana is one of the most highly used psychoactive substances in the world, and its use typically begins during adolescence, a period of substantial brain development. Females across species appear to be more susceptible to the long-term consequences of marijuana use. Despite the identification of inherent differences between rat strains including measures of anatomy, genetics and behaviour,...
Activation of cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1R) by delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) produces a variety of negative effects with major consequences in cannabis users that constitute important drawbacks for the use of cannabinoids as therapeutic agents. For this reason, there is a tremendous medical interest in harnessing the beneficial effects of THC. Behavioral studies carried out in mice...
Background Resting-state functional connectivity is a noninvasive, neuroimaging method for assessing neural network function. Altered functional connectivity among regions of the default-mode network have been associated with both nicotine and cannabis use; however, less is known about co-occurring cannabis and tobacco use. Methods We used posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seed-based...