New Study: Cannabis Can Prevent the Effects of Stress-Related Depression
A new study published this week by the National Institute of Health has found that cannabinoids can prevent the effects of stress-induced depression.
For the study – which was conducted at the University of Haifa – researchers used animal models to examine if activation of the body’s cannabinoid receptors (something which cannabis does naturally) can “ameliorate the effects of CMS [chronic mild stress] on emotional learning (ie, conditioned avoidance and extinction), long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampal-accumbens pathway and depression-like symptoms (ie, coping with stress behavior, anhedonia and weight changes).”
Researchers found that cannabinoid receptor activation “prevented the CMS-induced alterations in emotional memory (ie, extinction) and plasticity.”
Researchers concluded that; “The findings suggest that enhancing cannabinoid signaling could represent a novel approach to the treatment of cognitive deficits that accompany stress-related depression.”
This study will be published in print in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
– TheJointBlog