Study: Cannabinoids Reverse the Effects of Stress on Neurocognitive Performance
A new study published in the July, 2016 issue of the journal Learning & Memory, and published online by the U.S. National Institute of Health, has found that cannabinoids reverse the effects of stress on neurocognitive performance in young adults.
“Early life stress (ES) significantly increases predisposition to psychopathologies [mental illness or mental distress]”, states the study’s abstract. “Here we examined whether cannabinoids administered during “late adolescence” (extensive cannabis use in humans at the ages 18-25) could reverse the long-term adverse effects of ES on neurocognitive function in adulthood.”
Researchers fond that males and females with ES exhibited “impaired performance in short-term memory in adulthood in the spatial location and social recognition tasks; males were also impaired in the novel object recognition task.”
Administration of a cannabinoid during late adolescence, however, “prevented these stress-induced impairments and reduced anxiety levels.”
The study concludes: “There is a crucial role of the endocannabinoid system in the effects of early life stress on behavior at adulthood.”
The full study, conducted by researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel, can be found by clicking here.