This is your brain on (legal) cannabis: Researchers seek answers
For those suffering depression or anxiety, using cannabis for relief may not be the long-term answer
December 16, 2016
Science Daily/Colorado State University
For those suffering depression or anxiety, using cannabis for relief may not be the long-term answer.
That's according to new research from a team at Colorado State University seeking scientific clarity on how cannabis -- particularly chronic, heavy use -- affects neurological activity, including the processing of emotions.
Researchers led by Lucy Troup, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, have published a study in PeerJ describing their findings from an in-depth, questionnaire-based analysis of 178 college-aged, legal users of cannabis. Recreational cannabis became legal in Colorado in 2014. Since then, seven other states have enacted legalization for recreational use, while many others allow medical use.
"One thing we wanted to focus on was the significance of Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational cannabis, and its own unique population and use that occurs here," Troup said.
Through the study, which was based solely upon self-reported use of the drug, the researchers sought to draw correlations between depressive or anxious symptoms and cannabis consumption.
They found that those respondents categorized with subclinical depression, who reported using the drug to treat their depressive symptoms, scored lower on their anxiety symptoms than on their depressive symptoms - so, they were actually more depressed than they were anxious. The same was true for self-reported anxiety sufferers: they were found to be more anxious than they were depressed.
In other words, "if they were using cannabis for self-medication, it wasn't doing what they thought it was doing," explained co-author Jacob Braunwalder, a recently graduated student researcher in Troup's lab.
Study co-author Jeremy Andrzejewski led the development of the questionnaire, called R-CUE (Recreational Cannabis Use Evaluation), that took a deep dive into users' habits, including questions about whether users smoked the drug, or consumed stronger products like hash oils or edibles. The researchers are particularly motivated to study biochemical and neurological reactions from higher-tetrahydracannabinol (THC) products available in the legal market, which can be up to 80-90 percent THC.
The researchers are quick to point out that their analysis does not say that cannabis causes depression or anxiety, nor that it cures it. But it underscores the need for further study around how the brain is affected by the drug, in light of legalization, and by some accounts, more widespread use in Colorado since legalization.
For example, said Andrzejewski, "there is a common perception that cannabis relieves anxiety." Yet research has yet to support this claim fully, he said.
Graduate student and co-author Robert Torrence pointed to past research that shows that chronic use reduces naturally occurring endocannabinoids in the brain, which are known to play a role physiological processes including mood and memory.
"There is research to suggest that cannabis can help with anxiety and depression in the beginning, but it has the reverse effect later on," said Torrence, a U.S. Army veteran who is especially interested in studying cannabis' effectiveness in treating post-traumatic stress disorders.
Due to the federal government's stringent regulations around researching cannabis, which is a schedule I drug, the general public's perception of how it affects the brain is often based in "mythos," Braunwalder said. "We want to add more information to the entire body of research."
There are currently no CSU research labs that administer cannabis to study participants, as administration of the drug for research would require special licensing and security.
Moving forward, the researchers want to refine their results and concentrate on respondents' level and length of exposure to legally available high-THC products like concentrates and hash oils, around which there has been little scientific inquiry.
"It is important not to demonize cannabis, but also not to glorify it," Troup said. "What we want to do is study it, and understand what it does. That's what drives us."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161216115555.htm
How cannabis use affects people with Bipolar Disorder
Science Daily/March 13, 2015
Lancaster University
The first study to examine the use of cannabis in the context of daily life among people with Bipolar Disorder has shown how the drug is linked to increases in both manic and depressive symptoms.
Around 2% of the UK population has Bipolar Disorder, with up to 60% using cannabis at some point in their lives, but research in this area is limited and reasons for high levels of use are unclear.
Dr Elizabeth Tyler of the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research at Lancaster University led the study published in PLOS ONE with Professor Steven Jones and colleagues from the University of Manchester, Professor Christine Barrowclough, Nancy Black and Lesley-Anne Carter.
She said: "One theory that is used to explain high levels of drug use is that people use cannabis to self-medicate their symptoms of bipolar disorder. " The study looked at people diagnosed with bipolar disorder but who were not experiencing a depressive or manic episode during the six days the research was carried out.
Each participant completed a paper diary about their emotional state and drug use at several random points daily over a period of week. This enabled people to log their daily experiences in the moment before they forgot how they were feeling.
An individual with experience of bipolar disorder and cannabis use commented: "I do smoke a small amount to lift my mood and make myself slightly manic but it also lifts my mood and switches me into a different mind-set."
"I do not use weed to manage depression as it can make it worse, making me anxious and paranoid."
"I have found though that if I have smoked more excessively it can make me feel depressed for days afterwards."
The study found that the odds of using cannabis increased when individuals were in a good mood. Cannabis use was also associated with an increase in positive mood, manic symptoms and paradoxically an increase in depressive symptoms, but not in the same individuals.
Dr Tyler said: "The findings suggest that cannabis is not being used to self-medicate small changes in symptoms within the context of daily life. However, cannabis use itself may be associated with both positive and negative emotional states. We need to find out whether these relationships play out in the longer term as this may have an impact on a person's course of bipolar disorder."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150313130855.htm