Study: High THC cannabis can push schizos off the edge
New Scientist reports that newer, stronger dope makes crazies, well, crazier. Scientists have noted marijuana’s deleterious effect on people predisposed to schizophrenia, but it’s even worse for schizos smoking the urp. Why?
Normal cannabis contains level of the anti-psychotic CBD. But breeders focused on high THC strains have accidentally bred out CBD.
Just look at what THC on its own can do:
“Laboratory studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people. In stark contrast to THC, CBD appears to have an anti-psychotic effect, at least in animals. Studies in humans, though few in number, have produced similar findings. The elimination of cannabidiol from skunk may play a key role in the development of psychosis.”
In one human study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology (DOI: 10.1038/npp.2009.184), Sagnik Bhattacharya and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry in London used functional MRI brain scanning to study the effects of THC and CBD on the brains of healthy volunteers. They found that THC and CBD acted in opposition; in brain regions where THC increased neural activity from a baseline, CBD decreased it, and vice-versa.”
