U.S.: Marijuana Cannabinoids Could Point The Way To First Effective Medication For PTSD - (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
In a first-of-its-kind study on the biochemical
impact of psychological trauma, researchers have discovered a connection
between the amount of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain and the
chronic, disabling condition post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The findings, from New York University Langone Medical Center, appeared online Tuesday in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, reports Science Daily. They will also be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry in San Francisco.
There are a number of treatments using psychotherapy and cognitive
behavioral therapy for PTSD patients, but these methods aren't always
available, reports Loren Grush at Fox News.
No pharmaceutical treatments have yet been developed to specifically target PTSD.
The NYU Langone Center researchers utilized brain imaging technology
to highlight the connection between the number of cannabinoid receptors
in the brain and PTSD. The cannabinoid receptors, known as CB1
receptors, are activated in the brain when a person uses marijuana,
which can lead to impaired short-term memory and reduced anxiety.
CB1 receptors are part of the body's natural endocannabinoid system, a
network of chemicals and signaling pathways in the body which plays a
role in memory formation, appetite, pain tolerance and mood. Animal
studies have shown that cannabis, along with natural neurotransmitters
produced in the brain, can impair memory and reduce anxiety when the
activate CB1 receptors in the brain.
The
new study is the first to show, through brain imaging, that people with
PTSD have remarkably lower concentrations of at least one of these
endocannabinoids -- anandamide -- than people without PTSD.
The findings pave the way for development of the first-ever
medication designed specifically to treat PTSD, something that
researchers say is desperately needed.
"The first line of treatment (for PTSD patients) is selective
serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, which is a class of medication generally
used with good effects in people with depression," said Dr. Alexander
Neumeister, lead author of the study and director of the molecular
imaging program in the departments of psychiatry and radiology at NYU
School of Medicine.
"These medications do not really do the job for people with PTSD, so
clinicians use anything else that is legally available on the market,"
Dr. Neumeister said. "They often use different classes of medications
developed for things like depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar
disorder, and overall there's a consensus that these do not work."
"There's not a single pharmacological treatment out there that has
been developed specifically for PTSD," Dr. Neumeister said. "That's a
problem.
"In fact, we know very well that people with PTSD who use marijuana
-- a potent cannabinoid -- often experience more relief from their
symptoms than they do from antidepressants and other psychiatric
medications," Dr. Neumeister said. "Clearly, there's a very urgent need
to develop novel evidence-based treatments for PTSD."
"About eight years ago, the first animal study was published showing
that everybody has endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids, in the
brain -- meaning this substance is in the brain of every person," Dr.
Neumeister said. "Animal studies have suggested that increasing
cannabinoids in the brain helps them to forget painful events and form
new memories, so they start to learn to digest what they went through
and get over it. We thought this may be relevant to PTSD."
The study divided 60 participants into three groups: those with PTSD;
those with a history of trauma but no PTSD; and those with no history
or either trauma or PTSD. Participants in all three groups received a
radioactive tracer that illuminates CB1 receptors when exposed to PET
scans.
Results showed that participants with PTSD, especially women, had
more CB1 receptors in brain regions associated with fear and anxiety
than volunteers without PTSD. The PTSD group also had less of the
neurotransmitter anandamide, an endocannabinoid that binds to the CB1
receptor.
When anandamide levels are low, Dr. Neumeister explained, the brain
compensates by increasing the number of CB1 receptors. "This helps the
brain utilize the remaining endocannabinoids," he said.
"What is PTSD? It's an illness where people cannot forget what they
have experienced," Dr. Neumeister said. "Our findings offer a possible
explanation for this phenomenon."
Biological markers of PTSD -- such as these tests for CB1 receptors
and anandamide levels -- could dramatically improve diagnosis and
treatment for trauma victims, especially since current diagnostics for
PTSD rely on subjective measures and patient recall, making it difficult
to accurately diagnose the condition or distinguish it from depression
and anxiety.
An estimated 20 percent of the 1.7 million men and women who have
served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD, but it is not
limited to soldiers. Trauma from sexual and physical abuse, car
accidents, natural disasters, and life-threatening medical diagnoses can
lead to PTSD; it affects nearly 8 million Americans annually.
"We want to increase the concentration of these endocannabinoids,"
Dr. Neumeister said. "So we are currently working on the methods to do
this, and we have developed a compound that is able to increase the
concentration of endocannabinoids without attacking the receptors."
The thing is, we already have a safe, natural and organic way to
increase the concentration of cannabinoids in the brain -- it's called
smoking pot, and you don't have to pay a big pharmaceutical corporation
to do so, at least yet, anyway.
But Neumeister said the compound he's investigating is "very safe"
and does not come with the "added health problems" of marijuana use.
Without detailing what "health problems" those would those be, exactly
(studies have shown that not only does marijuana not harm the lungs or
pulmonary system; it actually appears to increase lung health.)
