Unraveling the Intoxicating and Therapeutic Effects of Cannabis Ingredients on Psychosis and Cognition

Abstract

Research evidence suggests a dose-response relationship for the association between cannabis use and risk of psychosis. Such relationship seems to reflect an increased risk of psychosis not only as a function of frequent cannabis use, but also of highpotency cannabis use in terms of concentration of -9-tetrahydrocannabinol ( 9-THC), its main psychoactive component. This finding would be in line with the evidence that 9-THC administration induces transient psychosis-like symptoms in otherwise healthy individuals. Conversely, low-potency varieties would be less harmful because of their lower amount of 9-THC and potential compresence of another cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), which seems to mitigate 9-THC detrimental effects. A growing body of studies begins to suggest that CBD may have not only protective effects against the psychotomimetic effects of 9-THC but even therapeutic properties on its own, opening new prospects for the treatment of psychosis. Despite being more limited, evidence of the effects of cannabis on cognition seems to come to similar conclusions, with increasing 9-THC exposure being responsible for the cognitive impairments attributed to recreational cannabis use while CBD preventing such effects and, when administered alone, enhancing cognition. Molecular evidence indicates that 9-THC and CBD may interact with cannabinoid receptors with almost opposite mechanisms, with 9-THC being a partial agonist and CBD an inverse agonist/antagonist. With the help of imaging techniques, pharmacological studies in vivo have been able to show opposite effects of 9-THC and CBD also on brain function. Altogether, they may account for the intoxicating and therapeutic effects of cannabis on psychosis and cognition.

The Impact of Cannabidiol on Human Brain Function: A Systematic Review

“…For instance, whereas memory paradigms may heavily rely on recruitment of temporal and prefrontal areas ( Bhattacharyya et al, 2009 ; Bhattacharyya et al, 2018 ; O’Neill et al, 2020 ), emotional and salience processing mainly involve limbic activation ( Fusar-Poli et al, 2009 ; Bhattacharyya et al, 2012b ). One final methodological aspect that should be taken into account is that the clinical and brain effects of CBD might be different depending on age and illness progression ( Di Marzo et al, 2015 ; Batalla et al, 2019 ; Colizzi et al, 2020 ), or be influenced by the concomitant use of medication (e.g., antipsychotics) or drugs of abuse. However, the within-subject design of the studies where concomitant use of medication or cannabis was allowed probably mitigated these confounding effects ( Table 3 ).…”

Cannabis: A Toxin-Producing Plant with Potential Therapeutic Uses

“…A dilemma surrounding cannabis safety and potential therapeutic effectiveness arises among researchers because most of the systemic reviews on cannabis use reported that cannabis has harmful outcomes and showed the clinical features of acute cannabis ingestion among children and adults that include anxiety, respiratory distress, decreased levels of consciousness, confusion and intoxication, psychiatric symptoms, and gastrointestinal adverse effects, especially among adults. Other reviews reported insufficient evidence of harm, or no evidence of harm outcomes, and encouraged cannabis legalization, showing its potential medical and therapeutic effects in treating different medical disorders such as cancer, neurological conditions, and others [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Therefore, it is important to better understand this plant and give proper knowledge to highlight the need for new guidelines and policies to regulate cannabis use.…”

Psicose induzida por drogas recreativas: uma revisão de literatura

“…Nas psicoses associadas à cannabis, os sintomas psiquiátricos positivos são os mais frequentes (Hindley et al, 2020), mas há também uma considerável ocorrência de sintomas negativos, como embotamento afetivo, e sintomas psiquiátricos gerais (Hindley et al, 2020), dentre estes, a ansiedade aparece muito frequentemente (Gerlach et al, 2019). Nos quadros causados por alucinógenos, há também uma elevada incidência de sintomas positivos, com alucinações vívidas (Dos Santos et al, 2017) e atividade psicomotora aumentada (Colizzi, Ruggeri, & Bhattacharyya, 2020), sintomas negativos também compõe o quadro, com destaque para a capacidade de socialização diminuída (Colizzi et al, 2020). Research, Society andDevelopment, v. 10, n. 2, e21910212459, 2021 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i2.12459 Nos casos associados à cocaína há um claro predomínio de sintomas positivos, com alucinações auditivas, visuais e delírios de conteúdo paranoide como os fenômenos mais frequentes (Tang et al, 2014).…”