Posted by europerep on January 16, 2012, at 7:23:27
In reply to Re: med change to marijuana? » JohnLA, posted by phidippus on January 15, 2012, at 18:14:51
> Marijuana has two psychotropic constituents: THC and CDD. THC is not real helpful for depression and can cause psychoses.
>
> CBD, on the other hand, may help with anxiety.This is all not true. Cannabis has contains a wide range of active cannabinoids, including but not limited to THC and CBD. Many of the compounds haven't even been researched yet, plus the combination of all those compounds may have synergistic effects. Of course, the fact that the molecules have not been researched yet can be good or bad, or a little bit of both.
Furthermore, there is evidence for the involvement of effects on the endocannabinoid system for basically all modes of pharmacological treatment of depression, from SSRIs to ECT. Boris Gorzalka and Matthew Hill have published a lot on those questions.
The comment about THC and psychosis is not true as well, or more precisely, it's not universally true. Look at this article for example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21114952 (I cannot find a site that features the abstract for free, but if needed I can post the article here)
It seems that there is a genetic component to whether patients with psychosis improve or deteriorate when exposed to THC.Having said all that, I don't think that cannabis is a *good* treatment for psychosis or depression. At best, it can be an effective treatment with enormous side effects. Seeing that there is no drug on the market that specifically targets the endocannabinoid system (such as the FAAH inhibitors that are currently being developed), cannabis may be the best option if all other treatment modes fail. As bleauberry said, using cannabis for these purposes requires some responsibility, maybe even more so than is the case with other drugs, but for patients who benefit from it, the risk-vs-benefit evaluation can very clearly be positive.
poster:europerep
thread:1006932
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120108/msgs/1007436.html