“The current study aimed to determine the impact of marijuana on mood in bipolar patients and to examine whether marijuana confers an additional negative impact on cognitive function. Findings suggest that for some bipolar patients, marijuana may result in partial alleviation of clinical symptoms. Moreover, this improvement is not at the expense of additional cognitive impairment. The current study highlights preliminary evidence that patients with BPD who regularly smoked MJ reported at least short-term clinical symptom alleviation following MJ use, indicating potential mood-stabilizing properties of MJ in at least a subset of patients with BPD.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27275781 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157060]]>
Marijuana Use and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke: The Stroke Prevention in Young Adults Study
“The association between marijuana use and ischemic stroke (IS) risk remains controversial. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of marijuana use on the risk of young-onset IS among Caucasians and African-Americans. Having a history of marijuana/hashish use was not associated with IS in the overall sample or any gender-/ethnic-specific subgroup. Our data does not demonstrate a risk of ischemic stroke as associated with marijuana use.” http://n.neurology.org/content/82/10_Supplement/S55.003
“No Link Between Marijuana Use and Stroke Risk. There was no evidence that marijuana use was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke in adolescents and young adults.” https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aan/45577
]]>Cannabidiol presents an inverted U-shaped dose-response curve in a simulated public speaking test.
“Cannabidiol (CBD), one of the non-psychotomimetic compounds of Cannabis sativa, causes anxiolytic-like effects in animals, with typical bell-shaped dose-response curves. No study, however, has investigated whether increasing doses of this drug would also cause similar curves in humans.
The objective of this study was to compare the acute effects of different doses of CBD and placebo in healthy volunteers performing a simulated public speaking test (SPST), a well-tested anxiety-inducing method.
Our findings confirm the anxiolytic-like properties of CBD and are consonant with results of animal studies describing bell-shaped dose-response curves. Optimal therapeutic doses of CBD should be rigorously determined so that research findings can be adequately translated into clinical practice.”
https://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X(16)31702-3/abstract http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462018005007102&lng=en&tlng=enCannabidiol regulates the expression of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis-related genes in response to acute restraint stress.
“Research interest has grown around the potential therapeutic use of cannabidiol in mood-related disorders, due to its anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects.
These have been partially attributed to its action as an allosteric modulator of 5-HTR1A. However, the exact mechanism supporting cannabidiol properties remains unclear.
“Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious plant belonging to the Cannabaceae family. The main phytochemicals that are found in this plant are represented by cannabinoids, flavones, and terpenes. Some biological activities of cannabinoids are known to be enhanced by the presence of terpenes and flavonoids in the extracts, due to a synergistic action.
In the light of all the above, the present study was aimed at the multi-component analysis of the bioactive compounds present in fibre-type C. sativa (hemp) inflorescences of different varieties by means of innovative HPLC and GC methods. 
“The endocannabinoid system is a modulator of neurotransmitter release and is involved in several physiological functions. Hence, it has been increasingly studied as a potential pharmacologic target of Parkinson’s disease.
Several preclinical and clinical studies evidenced a substantial rearrangement of the endocannabinoid system in the basal ganglia circuit following dopamine depletion. The endocannabinoid system has been additionally implicated in the regulation of neuroinflammation and neuroprotection through the activation of CB2 receptors, suggesting a potential target for disease modifying therapies in Parkinson’s disease.
In this chapter, current pharmacological and physiological knowledge on the role of the endocannabinoid system will be reviewed, focusing on preclinical studies animal models and clinical studies in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. The main strategies for imaging the brain 
“Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult mouse hippocampus occur in a specific neurogenic niche, where a multitude of extracellular signaling molecules converges to regulate NSC proliferation as well as fate and functional integration. However, the underlying mechanisms how NSCs react to extrinsic signals and convert them to intracellular responses still remains elusive.
NSCs contain a functional endocannabinoid system, including the 
“Clinical studies have shown that the major psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis sativa Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has some analgesic efficacy in neuropathic pain states.
However, THC has a significant side effect profile. We examined whether the profile of THC could be improved by co-administering it with the first-line neuropathic pain medication gabapentin.
These findings indicate that gabapentin synergistically enhances the anti-allodynic actions of THC and improves its therapeutic window.
Thus, THC may represent a potential adjuvant for neuropathic pain medications such as gabapentin.”