The current paucity of clinical evidence limits the use of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study investigates health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes and adverse events in patients prescribed CBMPs for PTSD. A case-series of patients from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry was analyzed. HRQoL was assessed at 1-, 3-, and 6-months...
Some evidence suggests that males and females may differ in their responses to acute cannabis effects, including subjective drug effects and behavioural effects, and cannabinoid pharmacokinetics. This is significant given current changes to cannabis-related policies and, in consequence, increased cannabis accessibility. The present study combines data from two randomized controlled trials to...
The recent shift in socio-political debates and growing liberalization of Cannabis use across the globe has raised concern regarding its impact on vulnerable populations such as adolescents. Concurrent with declining perception of Cannabis harms, more adolescents are using it daily in several countries and consuming marijuana strains with high content of psychotropic delta...
Western democracies continue to 'legalize recreational cannabis use' after its 'medicinal approval', while India continues to debate whether to 'decriminalize' cannabis or not. One of the strongest arguments against cannabis decriminalization is cannabis dependence and the risk of psychosis, at-least in the vulnerable groups. Endocannabinoids are involved in neuronal proliferation and...
HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is commonly observed in persons living with HIV (PWH) and is characterized by cognitive deficits implicating disruptions of fronto-striatal neurocircuitry. Such circuitry is also susceptible to alteration by cannabis and other drugs of abuse. PWH use cannabis at much higher rates than the general population, thus prioritizing the characterization of...
Background: Impairments in various subdomains of memory have been associated with chronic cannabis use, but less is known about their neural underpinnings, especially in the domain of the brain’s oscillatory activity. Aims: To investigate neural oscillatory activity supporting working memory (WM) in regular cannabis users and non-using controls. We focused our analyses on frontal midline theta...
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a diagnosis of extreme anxiety caused by a traumatic event. Less than 10% of individuals who have experienced severe trauma will develop this disorder. Treatment options include various psychotherapies, but not all patients respond to them. Different pharmacological approaches have been explored as potential adjuvants, including using cannabinoids to...
Abstract Despite extensive research, the rewarding effects of cannabinoids are still debated. Here, we used a newly established animal procedure called optogenetic intracranial self‐stimulation (ICSS) (oICSS) to re‐examine the abuse potential of cannabinoids in mice. A specific adeno‐associated viral vector carrying a channelrhodopsin gene was microinjected into the ventral tegmental area (VTA)...
Perinatal exposure to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) affects brain development and might increase the incidence of psychopathology later in life, which seems to be related to a dysregulation of endocannabinoid and/or dopaminergic systems. We here evaluated the transcriptional regulation of the genes encoding for the cannabinoid CB1 receptor (Cnr1) and the dopamine D2 receptor (Drd2) in perinatal...
Frontiers in Neuroscience2021Ricardo Augusto De Melo Reis, Alinny Rosendo Isaac, Hércules Rezende Freitas et al.
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is an important brain modulatory network. ECS regulates brain homeostasis throughout development, from progenitor fate decision to neuro- and gliogenesis, synaptogenesis, brain plasticity and circuit repair, up to learning, memory, fear, protection, and death. It is a major player in the hypothalamic-peripheral system-adipose tissue in the regulation of food...