Journal of Psychopharmacology
April 19, 2012
J. Byrnes, Nicole L. Johnson, M. Schenk et al.
In the United States, marijuana is one of the drugs most abused by adolescents, with females representing a growing number of users. In previous studies, treatment of adolescent female rats with morphine significantly altered brain reward systems in future offspring. As both cannabinoid and opioid systems develop during adolescence, it was hypothesized that early exposure to cannabinoids would...
Biological Psychiatry
April 15, 2012
Peter T Nguyen, Cullen L. Schmid, Kirsten M Raehal et al.
Cannabinoid CB(1) receptors (CB(1)Rs) mediate the effects of ▵(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in marijuana. Repeated THC administration produces tolerance and dependence, which limit therapeutic development. Moreover, THC produces motor and psychoactive side effects. β-arrestin2 mediates receptor desensitization, internalization, and signaling, but its role in these...
The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics : JPPT : the official journal of PPAG
April 2012
Travis S Heath, Zachary Burroughs, A Jill Thompson et al.
Illicit drug use continues to be a common problem among pediatric patients. Daily marijuana use among high school seniors is currently at a 30-year high. Marijuana use in adults has rarely been associated with cardiovascular adverse effects, including hypertension, tachycardia, arrhythmia, and myocardial infarction. Recently, abuse of synthetic cannabinoids, such as the incense "K2" or "Spice,"...
Psychopharmacology
March 2012
Torbjörn U C Järbe, Sherrica Tai, Brian J LeMay et al.
The endocannabinoid signaling system (ECS) has been targeted for developing novel therapeutics since ECS dysfunction has been implicated in various pathologies. Current focus is on chemical modifications of the hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) nabilone (Cesamet(®)). To characterize the novel, high-affinity cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB(1)R) HHC-ligand AM2389...
Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental
March 1, 2012
Elizabeth Murray, Raimondo Bruno, John Brown
‘Ecstasy’ (3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine) induces impaired functioning in the serotonergic system, including the occipital lobe. This study employed the ‘tilt aftereffect’ paradigm to operationalise the function of orientation‐selective neurons among ecstasy consumers and controls as a means of investigating the role of reduced serotonin on visual orientation processing. The magnitude of...
Neuropharmacology
February 2012
Robert E Vann, D M Walentiny, J J Burston et al.
Marijuana's effects in humans are most often reported as intoxicating or therapeutic; yet, some humans report dysphoria or other negative affect. To evaluate whether differences in endocannabinoid levels might account for this variability, the present study examined whether sensitivity to cannabinoids changed when anandamide (AEA) metabolism was inhibited through administration of phenylmethyl...
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
February 2012
Jenny L Wiley, Dana E Selley, Pinglang Wang et al.
The prototypic cannabinoid type 1 (CB₁) receptor antagonist/inverse agonist, rimonabant, is comprised of a pyrazole core surrounded by a carboxyamide with terminal piperidine group (3-substituent), a 2,4-dichlorophenyl group (1-substituent), a 4-chlorophenyl group (5-substituent), and a methyl group (4-substituent). Previous structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis has suggested that the...
Psychopharmacology
February 2012
Hendrika H Van Hell, Gerry Jager, Matthijs G. Bossong et al.
Disturbed reward processing in humans has been associated with a number of disorders, such as depression, addiction, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The endocannabinoid (eCB) system has been implicated in reward processing in animals, but in humans, the relation between eCB functioning and reward is less clear. The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to...
Harm Reduction Journal
January 18, 2012
Sunil K Aggarwal, Gregory Carter, Craig Zumbrunnen et al.
The goal of this paper is to both understand and depathologize clinically significant mental distress related to criminalized contact with psychoactive biotic substances by employing a framework known as critical political ecology of health and disease from the subdiscipline of medical geography. The political ecology of disease framework joins disease ecology with the power-calculus of...
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
2012
M Walter, Niklaus Denier, M Vogel et al.
Schizophrenia is a major mental illness that is characterized by psychosis, social withdrawal, and cognitive impairment. High comorbidity rates with substance use disorders have consistently been found - especially with abuse of cannabis and psychostimulants. While the role of these drugs in the onset of psychosis and schizophrenia has received much attention, relatively few studies have been...