Posted by linkadge on August 1, 2009, at 16:13:04
In reply to Re: Marijuana for depression/anxiety,good or bad idea?, posted by morganpmiller on July 31, 2009, at 21:46:32
>Chronic marijuana smoking damages the brain.
Uh, sorry. I don't think we have the data to make that conclusion.
>There is no way you can compare marijuana to >SSRIs. No way whatsoever.
Yes there is and I am doing it. I know a handful of people with GAD who went off pot as per doctors advice, when through the whole SSRI / SNRI merry go round and ended up back on pot saying it worked bettter for anxiety, insomnia, appetite loss etc. There is a lot of reseach these days on the theraptutic effects of cannabanoids in mental illness. One avenue is the use of FAAH inhibitors. These drugs block the breakdown of anandamide. Anandamide is the brains own version of marijuanna. It binds to the same receptors as THC and induces the same effects. In higher doses, anandamide produces the same euphoria side effect as THC.
I am not advocating smoking so much marijuanna to get high as a kite. I think in lower doses you can get a theraptutic effect perhaps by correcting an endocannabanoid deficiancy (which some authors have documented in clinical depression).
>Marijuana gets u high for a very short time and >then it is gone. It can impair your judgement.
I wouldn't say that. There is more in marijuanna than just THC. Some of the compounds in MJ have a half life of more than a week. One of the substances, cannabidol, has anti-anxiety and antipsychotic effects. It contributes in no way to the "high" of the drug. By the way, I am not recomending using doses of cannabis that get you high.
>Really linkage, are you serious here? Yes you >are, that's the scary thing.
No, what I think is scarry is that people recieve misinformation about a) the real health risks associated with marijuanna use b) the real health risks of conventional treatments for depression / anxiety.
Lets face it. The medical community has adopted the use of marijuanna. With a prescription you can obtain medicinal marijuanna. You could never obtain medicinal PCP, or medicinal crack cocaine. Obviously the medical community agrees that in certain circumstances there is a theraputic effect which outweights the risks. All treatments have risks. I am by no way telling people to go out and smoke marijuanna. I am just stating that there is some evidence of why it appears to really help some people.
>Until big pharma synthesizes a pill with a long >half life using the components of marijuana that >act on depresion, there is no way we can begin >to talk about marijuana being used successfully >to treat depression.
We can talk about it. We are talking about it right now. There are many people who use the substance to quell negative moods. I have a friend that failed every SSRI, 4 TCA's and both MAOI's, yet swears by his 3 puff rule to keep him out of the hospital.
>You give me one person that has smoked marijuana >over the years that does not show holes in their >brain after pet scans and has not lost much of >their short term memory, and maybe I will take >marijuana as an antidepressant seriously.
Unfortunately, there is no such evidence that marijuanna produces "holes in the brain". These sorts of images have been demonstrated with meth or crack users, but not in association with monodrug (marijuanna) users.
It is abundantly clear that higher doses of marijuanna can impair cognition while the user is on the drug. Other than that there is not a lot of evience of residual effects.
A number of other psychiatric drugs can cause significant memory impairment. Depakote, lithium, AP's, TCA's, nardil, topomax, benzodiazapines to name a few.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:909301
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090801/msgs/909712.html