“The use of cannabis products for medical purposes is rapidly increasing in the Netherlands. Studies suggest that these products have positive effects in the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain, multiple-sclerosis-related spasticity, certain epilepsy syndromes and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.”
“Given the use of cannabis as an analgesic by a broadening age range of patients, the aim of this study was to determine whether the antinociceptive effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) differ by age.
On the tail withdrawal test, THC was significantly more effective in middle-aged adult than in young adult rats and significantly less effective in adolescent than in young adult rats.
Sex differences in THC’s antinociceptive effects were consistent across the 3 ages examined, with greater THC effects observed in females than males of each age. Age-related differences in THC’s locomotor-suppressing effect were also observed, with the greatest effect in young adult female rats. Serum THC levels were slightly higher in adolescent than in young adult rats, and levels of the active metabolites 11-OH-THC and cannabinol, as well as the inactive metabolite 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC, did not differ between adolescent and young adult rats.
These results suggest that the pain-relieving effects of THC may be more limited in adolescents than in adults and that these age-related differences in THC effect are not attributable to differential absorption or metabolism of THC.”
“We aimed at clarifying the strength and consistency of the association between cannabis use disorder and suicide attempts in bipolar disorder.
We could not perform a meta-analysis exploring the longitudinal association between cannabis use disorder and suicide attempts, due to the lack of suitable data.
The current evidence highlights a weak association between cannabis use disorder and suicidal attempts in bipolar disorder.
Due to the cross-sectional design of included studies, causal inferences could not be explored.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31121199
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976341830993X?via%3Dihub
“This article reviews preclinical and human studies examining the effects of CBD administration on alcohol responses. Preliminary preclinical results suggest that CBD can attenuate alcohol consumption and potentially protect against certain harmful effects of alcohol, such as liver and brain damage.”
“Scientific literature examining cannabis use in the context of health behaviors, such as exercise engagement, is extremely sparse and has yielded inconsistent findings. This issue is becoming increasingly relevant as cannabis legalization continues, a situation that has been associated with increased initiation of use among adults, and increased potency of available products in legalized states.
Physical activity is among the most important health behaviors, but many Americans do not meet minimum exercise recommendations for healthy living. Common issues surrounding low exercise rates include inadequate enjoyment of and motivation to exercise, and poor recovery from exercise.
It is unclear whether cannabis use shortly before and/or after exercise impacts these issues, and whether this co-use affects exercise performance. The present online survey study examines attitudes and behaviors regarding cannabis use with exercise among adult cannabis users living in states with full legal access (N = 605).
Results indicated that the majority (81.7%) of participants endorsed using cannabis concurrently with exercise, and those who did tended to be younger and more likely to be males (p < 0.0005 for both). Even after controlling for these differences, co-users reported engaging in more minutes of aerobic and anaerobic exercise per week (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, the majority of participants who endorsed using cannabis shortly before/after exercise reported that doing so enhances their enjoyment of and recovery from exercise, and approximately half reported that it increases their motivation to exercise.
This study represents an important step in clarifying cannabis use with exercise among adult users in states with legal cannabis markets, and provides guidance for future research directions.”
“Cannabis use is frequent in HIV-infected individuals for its appetite stimulation and anti-inflammatory effects. To identify the underlying molecular mechanisms associated with these effects, we simultaneously profiled micro-RNA (miRNA) and mRNA expression in the colon of chronically simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected rhesus macaques administered either vehicle (VEH/SIV; n = 9) or Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC; THC/SIV; n = 8).
Pro-inflammatory miR-130a, miR-222, and miR-29b, lipopolysaccharide-responsive miR-146b-5p and SIV-induced miR-190b were significantly upregulated in VEH/SIV rhesus macaques. Compared to VEH/SIV rhesus macaques, 10 miRNAs were significantly upregulated in THC/SIV rhesus macaques, among which miR-204 was confirmed to directly target MMP8, an extracellular matrix-degrading collagenase that was significantly downregulated in THC/SIV rhesus macaques. Moreover, THC/SIV rhesus macaques failed to upregulate pro-inflammatory miR-21, miR-141 and miR-222, and alpha/beta-defensins, suggesting attenuated intestinal inflammation.
Further, THC/SIV rhesus macaques showed higher expression of tight junction proteins (occludin, claudin-3), anti-inflammatory MUC13, keratin-8 (stress protection), PROM1 (epithelial proliferation), and anti-HIV CCL5. Gomori one-step trichrome staining detected significant collagen deposition (fibrosis) in the paracortex and B cell follicular zones of axillary lymph nodes from all VEH/SIV but not in THC/SIV rhesus macaques, thus demonstrating the ability of Δ9-THC to prevent lymph node fibrosis, a serious irreversible consequence of HIV induced chronic inflammation.
Furthermore, using flow cytometry, we showed that Δ9-THC suppressed intestinal T cell proliferation/activation (Ki67/HLA-DR) and PD-1 expression and increased the percentages of anti-inflammatory CD163+ macrophages. Finally, while Δ9-THC did not affect the levels of CD4+ T cells, it significantly reduced absolute CD8+ T cell numbers in peripheral blood at 14 and 150 days post-SIV infection.
These translational findings strongly support a role for differential miRNA/gene induction and T cell activation in Δ9-THC-mediated suppression of intestinal inflammation in HIV/SIV and potentially other chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestine.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31114576
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00914/full
“Cannabis and its pharmacologically active constituents, phytocannabinoids, have long been reported to have multiple medicinal benefits.
One association often reported by users is sedation and subjective improvements in sleep.
Many of the reviewed studies suggested that cannabinoids could improve sleep quality, decrease sleep disturbances, and decrease sleep onset latency.”
“Cannabidiol (CBD) is a natural compound of cannabis, which exerts complex and widespread immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anxiolytic, and antiepileptic properties. Many experimental data suggest that CBD could have several types of application in alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alcohol-related damage on the brain and the liver.
Experimental studies converge to find that CBD reduces the overall level of alcohol drinking in animal models of AUD by reducing ethanol intake, motivation for ethanol, relapse, and by decreasing anxiety and impulsivity. Moreover, CBD has been shown to reduce alcohol-related steatosis and fibrosis in the liver by reducing lipid accumulation, stimulating autophagy, modulating inflammation, reducing oxidative stress, and inducing death of activated hepatic stellate cells. Last, CBD has been found to reduce alcohol-related brain damage, preventing neuronal loss by its antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties.
CBD could directly reduce alcohol drinking in subjects with AUD. But other original applications warrant human trials in this population. By reducing alcohol-related processes of steatosis in the liver, and brain alcohol-related damage, CBD could improve both the hepatic and neurocognitive outcomes of subjects with AUD, regardless of the individual drinking trajectories. This might pave the way for testing new harm reduction approaches in AUD, i.e., for protecting the organs of subjects with an ongoing AUD.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.00627/abstract
“Despite the staggering consequences of the opioid epidemic, limited nonopioid medication options have been developed to treat this medical and public health crisis.
This study investigated the potential of cannabidiol (CBD), a nonintoxicating phytocannabinoid, to reduce cue-induced craving and anxiety, two critical features of addiction that often contribute to relapse and continued drug use, in drug-abstinent individuals with heroin use disorder.
Acute CBD administration, in contrast to placebo, significantly reduced both craving and anxiety induced by the presentation of salient drug cues compared with neutral cues. CBD also showed significant protracted effects on these measures 7 days after the final short-term (3-day) CBD exposure. In addition, CBD reduced the drug cue–induced physiological measures of heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. There were no significant effects on cognition, and there were no serious adverse effects.
CBD’s potential to reduce cue-induced craving and anxiety provides a strong basis for further investigation of this phytocannabinoid as a treatment option for opioid use disorder.”
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18101191
“Cognitive impairment is a core symptom of schizophrenia; however, current antipsychotic drugs have limited efficacy to treat these symptoms and can cause serious side-effects, highlighting a need for novel therapeutics.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-intoxicating phytocannabinoid that has demonstrated pro-cognitive effects in multiple disease states, including a maternal immune activation (poly I:C) model of schizophrenia, but the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of CBD require investigation.
We examined alterations in markers of muscarinic neurotransmission in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HPC) following CBD treatment.
These findings demonstrate that CBD can normalise muscarinic neurotransmission imbalances in male poly I:C offspring in regions of the brain implicated in cognition.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31108177
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584618308121?via%3Dihub