Schizophrenia Treatment Extracted from Marijuana
Oct 15, 2013, 8:23 pm
Despite this, the matter is not quite as straight forward as it may seem. While the use of marijuana has increased over the last 60 years the rate of schizophrenia has remained at about 1% of the population. One explanation could be that while Marijuana is a trigger for schizophrenia, the people it triggers would have gone on to develop the condition anyway. 
Follow @sbxsupplements Whether or not marijuana is causal in the development of schizophrenia, it seems that there is now a possibility that marijuana may be able to atone for some of its sins. One of the components of marijuana, cannabidiol, has been found in a recent study to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia as effectively as antipsychotics but with few side effects.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is very different to Tetrahydrocannabinal (THC), another component of marijuana and the one that causes the “high”. It is proven that THC can induce psychotic symptoms in both healthy individual and those with schizophrenia.
The research I would draw your attention to today was conducted at University of Cologne (in Germany) and was led by Markus Leweke. Thirty-nine patients who were hospitalized for a psychotic episode were involved in the double blind study. Nineteen patients were given antipsychotic medication and the other 20 were given cannabidiol. Neither the patients or the doctors knew which patients received which medication, but at the end of 4 weeks the two groups had responded the same. Both groups showed significant improvement in the symptoms of their schizophrenia.
The researchers have described the results of the study as amazing. Daniele Piomelli , professor of pharmacology who co-authored the study, described cannabidiol as being “essentially free of side effects”. In the abstract of the study which you can find here cannabidiol was described as having led to the same significant improvements as the antipsychotic but with a “markedly superior side-effects profile” .
Cannabidiol has also been shown to reduce the psychosis-like effects of THC and likely acts upon a system in the brain that has a protective role in schizophrenia. The worrying aspect for marijuana smokers is that as users have looked for better highs suppliers have engineered marijuana with higher levels of THC, and this has come at the expense of the levels of cannabidiol in the weed.
In any event it seems that a new treatment is on its way provided it can avoid the resistence that it will inevitably get as a result of being derived from marijuana. As always, we will keep you updated.
In any event it seems that a new treatment is on its way provided it can avoid the resistence that it will inevitably get as a result of being derived from marijuana. As always, we will keep you updated.
