The acute psychotomimetic effect of cannabis is transient, but evidence indicates that chronic use, especially if it begins in adolescence, contributes to the onset of schizophrenia. DENVER Five years ago, Ethan Andrew had what he describes as the scariest experience of his life. He said it took two months for the symptoms of psychosis to go away. But for Andrew, not knowing the difference between his dreams and reality was the worst part of what happened.
A survivor of cannabis-induced psychosis offers hope to addicts. He started smoking marijuana at 16 and the symptoms of cannabis-induced psychosis began when Andrew was 18, after several months of smoking what he called high-potency marijuana every day. Andrew is now 23 years old and his life is stable. He hasn't smoked in five years.
These days, Andrew has a job he enjoys, a girlfriend, and he will start school in the fall to earn his associate degree at Community College in Denver. Regular therapy and exercise help control your anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Stories from the community around Colorado and updates on your favorite PBS shows, in your inbox every Tuesday. More research should be done on THC and CBD in schizophrenia, with and without the concomitant illness, and consider the role of CBD in mitigating the exacerbation of symptoms caused by THC.
It's also possible that people with schizophrenia who use cannabis or have a CDU respond differently to CBD than those who don't, but no study has closely examined the effect of CBD on patients with schizophrenia and CUD. Serum levels of CBD were positive in all participants in the CBD group at the end of the study, suggesting adequate adherence. Although information on substance use was generally not provided during the study, the authors reported that one patient in the CBD group was dependent on cannabis at the start of the study and had not changed his pattern of use during the study, and that another in the CBD group was an alcoholic at the start of the study, but not at the end of treatment. In addition, while the placebo and 300 mg CBD groups improved performance in the second session compared to the first session, the 600 mg CBD group did not.
In addition, serum anandamide levels increased more among patients treated with CBD than with amisulpride, and the degree of increase was due to an associated improvement in the total PANSS score in the CBD group, but not in the amisulpride group. The four small placebo-controlled studies on the increase of CBD in schizophrenia have ambiguously and limited demonstrated the ability of CBD added to an antipsychotic to further reduce symptoms of psychosis and improve cognitive impairment.
