Posted by linkadge on August 1, 2009, at 16:41:49
In reply to Re: Marijuana for depression/anxiety,good or bad idea?, posted by morganpmiller on August 1, 2009, at 3:22:33
"The researchers caution that the study is preliminary and does not demonstrate that marijuana use causes the brain abnormalities."For instance, people who use antidepressants may have smaller hippocampal volumes. This does not imply that the AD's caused hippocampal volume loss. Infact the opposite may be true.
The third article doesn't say a whole lot. We already know that marijuanna constituents remain stored in the fatty cells of the brain for a month or more. So the fact that some evidence of cognative impairment a month later is present is not unreasonable. Also, there may be neurochemical imbalences that last for a while after stopping smoking, but this doesn't necessarily indicate actual structural brain damage.
Also worth noting, patients with ADHD and schizophrenia demonstrate the same patterns of cerebral blood flow i.e. increased parietal activity and reduced prefrontal cortex activity. Since this study did not include brain scans of the participants before using there is no way that it can rule out the possibility of preexisting neurologic impairments. Blood flow changes are also not necessarily indicative of brain damage.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:909301
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090801/msgs/909716.html