All posts tagged: Cognition

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Long-Term Cannabis Use Can Impair Learning

April 2, 2020 , , ,

Cognitive, physical, and mental health outcomes between long-term cannabis and tobacco users

In Summary

Researchers have recently compared long-term cannabis and tobacco users, finding that cannabis users had more difficulties learning but better health overall than tobacco users. This study compared tobacco and cannabis users after they had abstained from their chosen substance for 15 hours before running through a myriad of texts. Although it took cannabis users longer to acquire and recall novel information cannabis users reported better psychological, somatic, and general health than tobacco users, as well as lowered stress levels, more similar to controls. Tobacco users were also revealed to have more emotional problems than cannabis users and controls. This research may prove beneficial in the creation of programs that utilize cannabis to aid in the cessation of tobacco use. 

This research, while highlighting the advantages of cannabis use over tobacco use, also emphasizes the negative impact of cannabis on individuals in school. Whether those individuals are enrolled in a high school or upper-level academic program, consistent use of cannabis may prove harmful to their overall performance. Patients should always discuss their concerns with their recommending physicians, and should be mindful of the current gaps in medical knowledge concerning cannabis. This information also does not apply to every cannabis-based product, like most topicals. Topicals, unless high-dose tetrahydrocannabinol patches, generally do not cause psychoactive effects and would, therefore, have no affect learning. More research is needed to fully understand which cannabinoids, doses, and frequency of doses, affect learning so that patients are well informed about their medications. 

The study is available for review or download here

Cognitive-physical-and-mental-health-outcomes-between-long-term-cannabis-and-tobacco-usersDownload

View more studies like this in the CED Foundation Archive 

http://bit.ly/drcaplanTo explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDLong-Term Cannabis Use Can Impair Learning
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Adolescent Cannabis Use Linked to Sleep Disturbances

September 9, 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sleep Disturbances, Psychosocial Difficulties and Health Risk Behavior

Summary info:

A Dutch study investigated sleep disturbances in adolescents. Sleep disruption was linked to cannabis use, psychosocial difficulties, health risk behavior, and increased suicidality. Additionally, gender disparity in results suggests that girls may be more susceptible to sleep disturbances than boys , a result consistent with past recognition of some gender discrepancies in cannabis activity. These results highlight the importance of discouraging haphazard cannabis use, during adolescence, and the need for further gender-focused research surrounding sleep habits and cannabis use.

Dr Caplan, CED Foundation, and the #MDTake:

There are a few important issues that converge in this review. Generally, the question of adolescents’ use, (as an alternative way of describing the question of effects on a developing brain.) Also, this paper raises valuable questions about how cannabis may be interacting with sleep hygiene, for better or for worse. Psychosocial impact and risky behaviors are very complex topics to engage, even with a fairly large population sample of (n=16,781.) There are lots of intercorrelated topics assessed, analyzed, and discussed in the review, and it is all-too-easy to want to find causal patterns that are not apparent, again for better or worse, unless one chooses to construe the results or interpretation with causation in mind. Realistically, it is very likely to find overlap in a population of adolescents who have psychosocial difficulties, engage in risky behaviors, have increased risk of suicidality, and consume cannabis. To point to one of the components, arbitrarily, as the primary cause of the others is to unnecessarily and unjustly oversimplify a complex set of circumstances. The essential tenet, different genders seem to react differently with cannabis, is an excellent take-away, and also that we have much more still to learn.

View this review (yellow link) or download:

Sleep Disturbances, Psychosocial Difficulties and Health Risk BehaviorDownload

This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/314TsEC     inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDAdolescent Cannabis Use Linked to Sleep Disturbances
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The Cannabinoid System Provides Target for Novel Alzheimer’s Treatment

August 28, 2019 , , , , , ,

Discovery of novel benzofuran-based compounds with neuroprotective and immunomodulatory properties for Alzheimer’s disease treatment

A recent study has revealed that novel therapeutic methods that modulate the endocannabinoid system may help to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have isolated two compounds that provide neuroprotective benefits regulated by the endocannabinoid system. This treatment is specifically thought to slow the progression of the disease as it provides anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects that would prevent the aggressive degradation of the cholinergic system.  Further research will hopefully continue to expand on findings such as these, toward the development of much-needed medications. 

View this review (yellow link) or download:

This paper is also stored here:     http://bit.ly/2HreN39    inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDThe Cannabinoid System Provides Target for Novel Alzheimer’s Treatment
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Natural & Cannabinoid Changes in Dopamine: A key to the psychosis question?

August 25, 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comparing dopaminergic dynamics in the dorsolateral striatum between adolescent and adult rats- Effect of an acute dose of WIN55212-2

Brief summary:

A recent study has exposed an age-dependent mechanism within the dopaminergic system that relies on cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1). Adult and adolescent dopamine levels were examined in the presence of a CB1 agonist and increased levels of extracellular dopamine were found in adolescents. This study reveals the different effects cannabis-based medicine has depended on the age of the patient and warrants future research to ensure cannabis has the desired therapeutic effect on patients.   

Dr Caplan Discussion Points:

This adds a helpful layer of insight to the way an animal model of dopamine changes over time, as well as its interaction with exogenous cannabinoids. This sheds light on the natural evolution of the dopamine control system (irrespective of how it interacts with endocannabinoids), and it also points to how cannabinoids may be involved.

This helps to educate the discussion about how psychosis and cannabis use may interact. There is a long-held understanding that dopamine abnormalities in the specific parts of the brain (mesolimbic and prefrontal brain regions) exist in schizophrenia. More recently, research has also strongly suggested that other neurotransmitters, including glutamate, GABA, acetylcholine, and serotonin are also involved in schizophrenia (and, coincidentally, there is also interaction with these other neurotransmitters from various components of cannabis). Nonetheless, this study simply suggests that, by nature, basal dopamine levels increase during adolescence. Also, the study points out that some cannabinoids boost basal levels too. It seems logical to suggest that excessive dopamine may create a problematic force of additional tipping toward illness, within individuals for whom a congenital predisposition toward illness exists.

View this review (yellow link) or download:

Comparing dopaminergic dynamics in the dorsolateral striatum between adolescent and adult rats- Effect of an acute dose of WIN55212-2Download

This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/2HpWqM5     inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDNatural & Cannabinoid Changes in Dopamine: A key to the psychosis question?
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Video: Controversial Questions in Cannabis Today

August 2, 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As cannabis finds its place back into modern human culture quickly, there is much still to be learned. As the science grows and adapts to modern need and expectations, the “can we” may be out-pacing the “should we.” On the other hand, there are circumstances where modern culture really “should be” and is handicapped by years of misinformed stigma.

Here, a few controversial questions about cannabis:

Should teachers be allowed to use cannabis around children? 

Should spiritual leaders be allowed to use cannabis, as they have for millennia?

Should taxi drivers be allowed to use cannabis on the job?

Should pilots be allowed to use cannabis?

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Benjamin Caplan, MDVideo: Controversial Questions in Cannabis Today
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New Developments of Cannabinoid-Based Drugs

August 1, 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title: Novel approaches in clinical development of cannabinoid drugs

A pamphlet has recently been published that highlights new approaches in the clinical development of cannabinoid-based therapies. The pamphlet begins with a look into how current cannabinoids affect patients based on gender, stress, physiological variations, and also delves into how cannabis works on the body in general.

A novel therapy that features an oral version of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and a synthetic activator of cannabinoid-receptor-1 (CB1) is explored in this piece and frames it to be a promising future therapy. The pharmacological properties of these two novel therapies were optimized during development after various analysis techniques, forming medications that the authors hope to see in future clinical trials. 

Although the authors remain hopeful that their cannabis-based therapies will reach clinical trials soon, trials featuring cannabinoids are difficult to test in a formal setting because of a dire lack of funding. The federal government still lists cannabis as a Schedule I substance, under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that the federal government does not support the idea that cannabis has any medical use. Considering the legal status of cannabis, only privately-funded studies are able to take place, and unfortunately, that leaves cannabis research in an area of complete bias and prohibitively underfunded. Considering the massive literature supporting a myriad of novel therapeutic benefits, this is a costly reality to the health and well-being of millions.

View this review (yellow link) or download:

Novel approaches in clinical development of cannabinoid drugsDownload

This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/2K7bbVX     inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDNew Developments of Cannabinoid-Based Drugs
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The Effect of Chronic Cannabis Use on Volumetric Alterations in Brain Regions

August 1, 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title: Neuroanatomical alterations in people with high and low cannabis dependence

A recent article has been published revealing some volumetric alterations in specific brain regions in people who report dependence on cannabis. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the volume of certain regions, including the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the caudate, in cannabis dependent users, were all reduced in size, relative to recreational cannabis users who did not use cannabis chronically. Future research will likely focus on the effects of the structural alterations on patients’ reward, stress, and addiction-relevant circuitry to examine the possible relevance of cannabis dependance on those circuits. 

There are certainly possibilities that suggest this volume difference could be of concern, but there are also a great number of explanations (more than likely) whereby this is related to another variable that we have not yet fully appreciated.

Currently, cannabis use is thought to have a little-to-no risk of addiction (beyond any “normal” product of medical value, such as coffee or eyeglasses), because it does not act directly on the reward circuit. Opioids have a high risk of addiction, and therefore a concerning safety profile, in part because of the direct effect of the opioid system on the reward pathway of the central and peripheral nervous systems. While the endocannabinoid system has been observed to act directly up the reward circuit, it does so in subtle, soft ways, making it an ideal adjunct therapy for opioids to help with pain management. Current research provides inconsistent results and appropriately emphasizes a need for more testing to validate the possibility of cannabis as a recommended pain medication. 

View this review (yellow link) or download:

Neuroanatomical alterations in people with high and low cannabis dependenceDownload

This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/2K5JNYn     inside the CED Foundation Archive

To explore related information, click the keywords below:

Benjamin Caplan, MDThe Effect of Chronic Cannabis Use on Volumetric Alterations in Brain Regions
read more