Chronic High Doses of Cannabinoids Promote Hippocampal Neurogenesis

“Hippocampal neurogenesis is suppressed following chronic administration of the major drugs of abuse (including opiates, alcohol, nicotine, and cocaine). However, CB1-knockout mice display significantly decreased hippocampal neurogenesis, suggesting that CB1 receptors activated by endogenous, plant-derived, or synthetic cannabinoids may promote hippocampal neurogenesis. Cannabinoids can regulate the proliferation of hippocampal NS/PCs by acting on CB1 receptors. They found that both the synthetic cannabinoid HU210 and the endocannabinoid anandamide profoundly promote embryonic hippocampal NS/PC proliferation. Chronic, but not acute, HU210 significantly increases the number of newborn hippocampal neurons in adult rats by promoting NS/PC proliferation. A significant increase was observed in the hipoppocampal newborn neurons of mice following twice-daily HU210 injection for 10 days. This suggests that cannabinoids are the only illicit drug that can promote adult hippocampal neurogenesis following chronic  administration.” “Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects.” https://www.jci.org/articles/view/25509 http://www.science20.com/science_why_not/blog/chronic_high_doses_cannabinoids_promote_hippocampal_neurogenesis]]>

Epidemiological characteristics, safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in the elderly.

“There is a substantial growth in the use of medical cannabis in recent years and with the aging of the population, medical cannabis is increasingly used by the elderly. We aimed to assess the characteristics of elderly people using medical cannabis and to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment. Our study finds that the therapeutic use of cannabis is safe and efficacious in the elderly population. Cannabis use may decrease the use of other prescription medicines, including opioids.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29398248

“Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids: study” https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-02-medical-cannabis-significantly-safer-elderly.html
“Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids” https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/aabu-mcs021318.php
]]>

Cannabidiol appears to protect against long-term negative psychiatric effects of THC

“A study reported Sept. 5 by neuroscientists at Indiana University finds that a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD, appears to protect against the long-term negative psychiatric effects of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.” https://www.news-medical.net/news/20170906/Cannabidiol-appears-to-protect-against-long-term-negative-psychiatric-effects-of-THC.aspx

“CBD may protect against psychiatric risk from high-THC cannabis strains. IU neuroscientists find cannabidiol reduces symptoms such as impaired memory in adolescent mice simultaneously exposed to THC”  https://news.iu.edu/stories/2017/09/iub/releases/06-cbd-study.html

]]>

Adolescent cannabis use and brain systems supporting adult working memory encoding, maintenance, and retrieval

NeuroImage

“Given prior reports of adverse effects of cannabis use on working memory, an executive function with a protracted developmental course during adolescence, we examined associations between developmental patterns of cannabis use and adult working memory (WM) processes.

Within repeated cannabis users, greater levels of total cannabis use were associated with performance-related increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation during maintenance. Surprisingly, however, at the group level, cannabis users generally performed better than participants who reported never using cannabis (faster RT, higher accuracy).” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29253654 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811917310637

“Why Pot Smokers Scored Higher Than Nonsmokers on This Memory Test. Among a sample of 28-year-olds who took a working-memory test while undergoing an MRI brain scan, individuals who started smoking marijuana in adolescence performed just as well or even better than individuals who never smoked cannabis, the study found.” https://www.livescience.com/61574-adolescent-cannabis-use-memory-study.html

]]>