schizophrenia marijuana Archives

Contrary to arguments oft-used by opponents of marijuana and marijuana law reform, “cannabis use does not significantly compound the gray matter deficits associated with schizophrenia”.

This is according to a study published by the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, and conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee.

The study’s abstract starts by stating that; “Substance use may confound the study of brain structure in schizophrenia. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine whether differences in regional gray matter volumes exist between schizophrenia patients with and without clinically significant cannabis and/or alcohol use histories compared to 88 healthy control subjects.”

**Cannabidiol (CBD) has beneficial effects in patients with schizophrenia, according to a new study published by the American Journal of Psychiatry.**

“Research in both animals and humans indicates that cannabidiol (CBD) has antipsychotic properties”, begins the study’s abstract. “The authors assessed the safety and effectiveness of CBD in patients with schizophrenia.”

In an exploratory double-blind parallel-group trial, patients with schizophrenia were “randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive CBD (1000 mg/day; N=43) or placebo (N=45) alongside their existing antipsychotic medication.” Participants were “assessed before and after treatment using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), the Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF), and the improvement and severity scales of the Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI-I and CGI-S).”