The relationship between the endocannabinoid system and the emergence and treatment of schizophrenia-related symptoms continues to be a topic of significant interest within psychiatry. Cannabis is the most widely used recreational drug worldwide, and individuals with schizophrenia use it at a much higher rate than the general population. The shared genetic risk for schizophrenia and cannabis...
This Genomic Press Interview features Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Therapeutics for Mental Health, Staff Psychiatrist at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), and Senior Scientist, Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program at the Research Institute of the MUHC. Trained in medicine and psychiatry at the...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or "ecstasy," is a commonly used drug worldwide, including in New Zealand, where 4.8% of the population aged 15 years or over reported using it in a 2023/2024 survey. This study provides additional insights on MDMA prevalence data in New Zealand by reporting toxicology data from Coronial and driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) cases positive for...
Psychedelic medicines hold the promise of therapeutic benefit for many suffering from serious unmet mental health needs, leading to substantial demand even before these drugs receive FDA approval based on demonstrated safety and effectiveness for particular conditions. Recognizing FDA approval as the ideal path for psychedelics intended for medical use and drawing on lessons from medical...
Party drugs encompass a broad spectrum of legal and illegal psychoactive substances used in party settings such as clubs, festivals, raves or private gatherings to modulate mood, perception, social interaction and bodily states. Most commonly, alcohol and cannabis are consumed, followed by amphetamine, MDMA (“ecstasy”), cocaine and ketamine. Synthetic cathinones, GHB/GBL (“liquid ecstasy”),...
Despite decades of neuroscience research and significant investment in addiction neuroimaging, clinical outcomes for individuals with substance use and behavioural addictions remain poor. Only 1.8% of people with substance use disorders receive effective treatment, highlighting a major disconnect between mechanistic understanding and clinical utility. This paper calls for a reorientation of...
Background: Polysubstance use is common in alcohol use disorder (AUD) and associated with poor treatment outcomes. Cannabis and cocaine often co-used with alcohol, have no approved medication treatments and respond poorly to common behavioral treatments. Thus, treatments that can reduce use of these substances alongside AUD are critically needed. Objectives: We tested whether...
This study examined the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) on negative mood and drinking behaviors, and whether those effects were moderated by levels of perceived discrimination among participants who identify with a racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual identity that is underrepresented in research. Participants were either not using cannabis, using cannabis with THC, or...
There are few effective pharmacotherapies for treating eating disorders (EDs). High rates of substance use among individuals with EDs suggest potential self-medication of symptoms. To explore the experiences of individuals with EDs regarding use of prescribed and nonprescribed drugs. This survey study assessed responses to the Medications and Other Drugs for Eating Disorders (MED-FED) survey,...
Mental health implications of COVID-19 drug use patterns are still unclear. We used data-driven clustering in a large citizen science cohort recruited agnostically to an interest in drug-use to categorise people according to common patterns of drug use and analysed their mental health symptoms (GAD-7 and PHQ-9 items), from recruitment prior to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 (N = 242,260) to...