Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 29, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 16 hours, 16 minutes ago
Thailand Cannabis News
Medical Researchers from King's College London have shown that
cannabidiol (
CBD) from
cannabis alters the brain activity in people with
psychosis during memory tasks, making it more similar to the activation seen in people without
psychosis during the same tasks.
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The new research on medical
cannabis was published in Psychological Medicine, the research used fMRI scans to examine the brain activity of 13 people with a diagnosis of
psychosis under the influence of a single dose of
CBD or placebo and 16 controls whilst they were undertaking a memory task. The researchers showed that, during the task, there was a different pattern of activity in the prefrontal and mediotemporal brain areas of people with
psychosis under placebo compared to the activity seen in those without
psychosis. When those with
psychosis were given one dose of CBD, the activation in these brain areas became more like the activation seen in controls.
Professor Dr Sagnik Bhattacharyya, the senior author on the study, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London told
Thailand Medical News, "Our study provides important insight into which areas of the brain
CBD targets. It is the first time research has scanned the brains of people with a diagnosis of
psychosis who have taken
CBD and, although the sample is small, the results are compelling in that they demonstrate that
CBD influences those very areas of the brain that have been shown to have unusual activity in people with
psychosis."
Cannabidiol or
CBD is one of over 100 chemical compounds known as
cannabinoids that are found in the
cannabis plant. There has been recent interest in the use of
cannabidiol (
CBD) as an alternative to current antipsychotic medicines as it could prove to be more tolerable generally and more effective for a subset of people who do not respond to available
antipsychotics. Its use has been associated with a decrease in symptoms of
psychosis and changes in brain activity during verbal memory tasks in patients at high risk of
psychosis.
The research study also showed that activity in the striatum and the activity in hippoca
mpus was more co-ordinated in people with
psychosis, indicating there was a greater functional connectivity between these two areas in this group compared to controls. After one dose of
CBD this functional connectivity was reduced in people with psychosis and became more similar to that seen in the controls. Those people with
psychosis continued on their existing
antipsychotic treatment throughout the study.
The study results indicate that
CBD has a moderating effect on the altered pattern of brain activity in the prefrontal, mediotemporal and striatal areas in people with
psychosis. The study also showed that
psychotic symptoms did show a decreasing trend after the dose of
CBD but researchers highlighted that no definitive conclusions could be drawn about this effect as the study did not look at sustained use of
CBD or
medical cannabis and the sample size was small.
Dr Bhattacharyya further added: "This study provides important insight into the brain mechanisms behind the
antipsychotic effects of
CBD. It gives confidence in the
antipsychotic potential of
CBD by demonstrating that it targets the function of brain regions implicated in
psychosis and indicating that even a single dose may ameliorate some of the brain function alterations that may underlie
psychosis.”
The research findings indicate that
psychotic symptoms may show a trend towards improvement in this group even after one dose of
CBD is encouraging, but requires a larger scale clinical trial to investigate if the effects would continue with longer term treatment.
The study results form an important part of the picture that scientific research is building on the effects of
CBD and will help support the case for further clinical trials on the use of
CBD from medical
cannabis in different stages of
psychosis as well other
neuropsychiatric diseases such as Parkinson's disease where a proportion of patients may also experience
psychotic symptoms."
Reference : Psychological Medicine (2020). ,Normalization of mediotemporal and prefrontal activity, and mediotemporal-striatal connectivity, may underlie antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol in psychosis, Aisling O'Neill, Robin Wilson, Grace Blest-Hopley , Luciano Annibale , et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291719003519
