My Support Forums - View Single Post - Considering medical marijuana for anxiety

Altered Moment · Apr 03, 2014 at 02:12 PM

Medical Marijuana for Psychiatric Disorders | Psychology Today

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Let me just mention another study involving anxiety. This one is from 2008 involving subjects whose brains were scanned by a special type of MRI, the administration of a primary constituent of cannabis, specifically THC, significantly reduced the anxiety and extinguished fear in subjects who were exposed to pictures of threatening faces. The activity of a part of the brain, the amygdala, which is involved in recognizing threat and processing fear, was significantly reduced with the presence of THC.

Let me put this into some context.

Researchers use functional imaging so they can study activity in parts of the brain under certain conditions. When a threatening face is shown to a subject, the activity in the amygdala increases, the image on the screen brightens so you can see physically a direct correlation between an emotional state and what’s going on in the brain.

So if the activity increases naturally under the specific circumstance of seeing a picture of a threatening face, then logic would have it that something with an anxiolytic or soothing, calming effect, should reduce that activity. And that’s precisely what the THC from marijuana does.

Medical Marijuana and the Mind - Harvard Health Publications

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Marijuana is derived from the hemp plant, Cannabis. Although marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals, researchers best understand the actions of two: THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and cannabidiol.

THC is the chemical in marijuana primarily responsible for its effects on the central nervous system. It stimulates cannabinoid receptors in the brain, triggering other chemical reactions that underlie marijuana's psychological and physical effects — both good and bad.

Less is known about cannabidiol, although the research suggests that it interacts with THC to produce sedation. It may independently have anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, or antipsychotic effects, although the research is too preliminary to be applied clinically.

I dunno there is not that much real research on it probably because of the political reasons. When I say real research I mean like NIMH and harvard and mayo clinic and places like that.

I would say that with all the drugs out there both prescription and illegal pot is very harmless in comparison. I have used alot of illegal drugs and prescribed psychoactive drugs for mental illness and pot would be the least of my worries. I don't want my 20 year old daughter to smoke it but given a choice between that and alcohol I would pick pot any day. It is not going to hurt you to experiment a little. If it doesn't work then thats that. Just like me trying it for depression. It didn't work so I stopped. My sense is it would work much better for anxiety and insomnia then for depression if you get the right strain. Even in the 70's and 80's long before medical marijuana there were different strains that came from CA and Columbia. Columbian Gold we called it. That stuff had hallucinatory properties. We didn't limit our intake though we would smoke alot.