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Marijuana Health

PubMed Abstracts Marijuana - Recent and Cited by Wikipedia

Quality, Dosage, Etc.

  1. The 12-month prevalence and nature of adverse experiences resulting in emergency medical presentations associated with the use of synthetic cannabinoid products by Winstock AR, Barratt MJ in Hum Psychopharmacol. 2013 Jul;28(4):390-3: "...A wide range of synthetic cannabinoid products have recently become available through the Internet and shop fronts across the globe. Concerns about the consequences of their use have been prompted by increasing reports of emergency department presentations... Synthetic cannabinoid use appears to be associated with a high prevalence of adverse experiences among users, especially younger users. Further research is required to determine whether particular compounds carry a higher risk of harm than others and to assess potential consequences of longer term use."
  2. Determination of pesticide residues in cannabis smoke by Sullivan N, Elzinga S, Raber JC in J Toxicol. 2013;2013:378168: "The present study was conducted in order to quantify to what extent cannabis consumers may be exposed to pesticide and other chemical residues through inhaled mainstream cannabis smoke...Recoveries of residues were as high as 69.5% depending on the device used and the component investigated, suggesting that the potential of pesticide and chemical residue exposures to cannabis users is substantial and may pose a significant toxicological threat in the absence of adequate regulatory frameworks."
  3. [Effect and occurrence of synthetic cannabinoids]. [Article in Norwegian] by Tuv SS, Strand MC, Karinen R, Aiestad EL, Christophersen AS, Vindenes V in Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2012 Oct 30;132(20):2285-8: "...'Spice' is the term used for various products that contain synthetic cannabinoids...Synthetic cannabinoids are a large group of drugs of abuse that have an effect similar to cannabis, but may be considerably more potent. The contents of the various Spice products vary with respect to potency, purity and the number and types of additives, and this implies a risk of unintentional overdose. There are reports from abroad of cardiac infarction in teenagers, severe psychoses, anxiety, unconsciousness and deaths following use...Synthetic cannabinoids are marketed over the internet as legal and harmless cannabis, but can cause severe intoxication and death..."

Reproduction and Endocrine Effects

  1. Longitudinal modeling of transmissible risk in boys who subsequently develop cannabis use disorder by Kirisci L, Tarter RE, Ridenour T, Reynolds M, Vanyukov M in Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2013 May;39(3):180-5: "...Risk for substance use disorder is frequently transmitted across generations due to significant heritability...This longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that initial exposure to cannabis in youths having high transmissible risk is a signal event promoting development of cannabis use disorder (CUD)...Initial use of cannabis potentiates development of CUD in youths who are at high transmissible risk but is inconsequential in youths having low risk..."

Cannabis Dependency

  1. Predicting the transition from frequent cannabis use to cannabis dependence: A three-year prospective study by van der Pol P, Liebregts N, de Graaf R, Korf DJ, van den Brink W, van Laar M in Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Jul 22. pii: S0376-8716(13)00228-7: "...Frequent cannabis users are at high risk of dependence, still most (near) daily users are not dependent....Cannabis exposure variables and stable vulnerability factors did not independently predict first incidence of cannabis dependence...In a high risk population of young adult frequent cannabis users, current problems are more important predictors of first incidence cannabis dependence than the level and type of cannabis exposure and stable vulnerability factors."
  2. Implicit Associations and Explicit Expectancies toward Cannabis in Heavy Cannabis Users and Controls by Beraha EM, Cousijn J, Hermanides E, Goudriaan AE, Wiers RW in Front Psychiatry. 2013 Jun 21;4:59: "Cognitive biases, including implicit memory associations are thought to play an important role in the development of addictive behaviors...These findings indicate that, in contrast to other substances of abuse like alcohol and tobacco, the relationship between implicit associations and cannabis use appears to be weak in heavy cannabis users."
  3. Response inhibition and elevated parietal-cerebellar correlations in chronic adolescent cannabis users by Behan B, Connolly CG, Datwani S, Doucet M, Ivanovic J, Morioka R, Stone A, Watts R, Smyth B, Garavan H in Neuropharmacology. 2013 Jun 18. pii: S0028-3908(13)00241-4: "The ability to successfully inhibit an inappropriate behaviour is a crucial component of executive functioning and its impairment has been linked to substance dependence. Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in adolescence...a cohort of adolescent heavy cannabis users and age-matched non-cannabis-using controls completed a Go/No-Go paradigm...The results suggests that the poorer inhibitory control of adolescent cannabis users might be related to aberrant connectivity between nodes of the response inhibition circuit and that this effect is observable in both task-induced and intrinsic correlation patterns...
  4. Probability and predictors of transition from abuse to dependence on alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions by Flórez-Salamanca L, Secades-Villa R, Hasin DS, Cottler L, Wang S, Grant BF, Blanco C. Source in Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2013 May;39(3):168-79: "...Little is known about the transition from substance abuse to substance dependence...Lifetime cumulative probability estimates indicated that 26.6% of individuals with alcohol abuse, 9.4% of individuals with cannabis abuse, and 15.6% of individuals with cocaine abuse transition from abuse to dependence at some point in their lives. Half of the transitions of alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine dependence occurred approximately 3.16, 1.83, and 1.42 years after abuse onset, respectively..."

Mental Health

Mental Health Overview

  1. Changes in cannabis use among young people: impact on mental health by Copeland J, Rooke S, Swift W in Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2013 Jul;26(4):325-9: "...the profile of cannabinoids in cannabis may now be biased toward those that promote psychotogenic and memory-impairing effects. CUD has been found most prevalent among youth. After controlling for multiple confounders, longitudinal research suggests that cannabis use predicts the development of anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal ideation, certain personality disorders, and interpersonal violence. Further, associations have been found stronger in adolescents relative to adults, and younger age of initiation increases the risk of developing mental health disorders... recent studies are consolidating previous findings that adolescents are especially vulnerable to mental health disorders associated with cannabis..."
  2. Mental health differences between frequent cannabis users with and without dependence and the general population by van der Pol P, Liebregts N, de Graaf R, Ten Have M, Korf DJ, van den Brink W, van Laar M in Addiction. 2013 Aug;108(8):1459-69: "...To compare the prevalence of mental disorders between frequent cannabis users with and without dependence and the general population...Cannabis use patterns, childhood adversity and the use of other substances are similar in dependent and non-dependent frequent cannabis users. With the exception of more externalizing disorders, the mental health condition of non-dependent frequent cannabis users is similar to that of the general population, whereas it is worse in dependent frequent cannabis users."

Psychosis

  1. Cannabis use is associated with increased CCL11 plasma levels in young healthy volunteers by Fernandez-Egea E, Scoriels L, Theegala S, Giro M, Ozanne SE, Burling K, Jones PB in Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Jun 29;46C:25-28: "...we aimed to explore the possibility that cannabis use influenced CCL11 plasma levels. Increased CCL11 chemokine has been reported in schizophrenia... Additionally, plasma levels of the chemokine CCL11 have recently been shown to increase with age and with cognitive deficits and hippocampal neurogenesis...These results suggest that cannabis use increases CCL11 plasma levels and the effects are reversible when cannabis use ceases."
  2. Cannabis and psychosis: Have we found the missing links? by Parakh P, Basu D in Asian J Psychiatr. 2013 Aug;6(4):281-7: "...Heavy cannabis use at a young age, in association with genetic liability to psychosis and exposure to environmental stressors like childhood trauma and urban upbringing increases the risk of psychotic outcome in later life...Cannabis acts as a component cause of psychosis, that is, it increases the risk of psychosis in people with certain genetic or environmental vulnerabilities, though by itself, it is neither a sufficient nor a necessary cause of psychosis..."
  3. Cannabis psychosis: examining the evidence for a distinctive psychopathology in a systematic and narrative review by Baldacchino A, Hughes Z, Kehoe M, Blair H, Teh Y, Windeatt S, Crome IB in Am J Addict. 2012 Nov;21 Suppl 1:S88-98: "...The term "cannabis psychosis" has become ubiquitous in the psychiatric literature...These findings do not suggest that "cannabis psychosis" does not exist, only that from a psychopathological perspective it may not be qualitatively any different from other forms of psychosis..."
  4. Cannabis use and cognitive functions in at-risk mental state and first episode psychosis by Bugra H, Studerus E, Rapp C, Tamagni C, Aston J, Borgwardt S, Riecher-Rssler A in Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2013 Jun 12: "...Meta-analyses suggest that schizophrenia patients with a history of cannabis use have less impaired cognitive functioning compared to patients without cannabis use...The objective of this study was to assess the association between recency and frequency of cannabis use and cognitive functioning in at-risk mental state for psychosis (ARMS) and first episode psychosis (FEP) individuals...The results of the present study do not support the notion that FEP patients and ARMS individuals with a history of cannabis use have less impaired cognitive functioning compared to those without cannabis use."
  5. Cannabis use and first-episode psychosis: relationship with manic and psychotic symptoms, and with age at presentation by Stone JM, Fisher HL, Major B, Chisholm B, Woolley J, Lawrence J, Rahaman N, Joyce J, Hinton M, Johnson S, Young AH in Psychol Med. 2013 May 24:1-8: "...In this study, using a longitudinal design in a large naturalistic cohort of patients with first-episode psychosis, we investigated the relationship between cannabis use, age of presentation to services, daily functioning, and positive, negative and manic symptoms...Level of cannabis use was associated with a younger age at presentation, and manic symptoms and conceptual disorganization, but not with delusions, hallucinations, negative symptoms or daily functioning. Cannabis users who reduced or stopped their use following contact with services had the greatest improvement in symptoms at 1 year compared with continued users and non-users. Continued users remained more symptomatic than non-users at follow-up...Effective interventions for reducing cannabis use may yield significant health benefits for patients with first-episode psychosis."
  6. Cannabis use, cognition and brain structure in first-episode psychosis by Cunha PJ, Rosa PG, Ayres Ade M, Duran FL, Santos LC, Scazufca M, Menezes PR, dos Santos B, Murray RM, Crippa JA, Busatto GF, Schaufelberger MS in Schizophr Res. 2013 Jul;147(2-3):209-15: "Cannabis use...is associated with psychosis, but its effects on brain structure and cognition are still controversial. The aim of this paper is to investigate cognitive functioning and brain structure in patients with their first episode of psychosis who used Cannabis. ...Patients with a history of Cannabis use had less brain abnormalities, characterized by gray matter and lateral ventricle volume preservation, as well as less attentional and executive impairments compared to patients without a history of Cannabis use. Cannabis-using patients who develop psychosis have less neurodevelopmental impairment and better cognitive reserve than other psychotic patients; perhaps reflecting different etiological processes."

Depression

  1. The association between cannabis use and depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies by Lev-Ran S, Roerecke M, Le Foll B, George TP, McKenzie K, Rehm J in Psychol Med. 2013 Jun 24:1-14: "...Cannabis use, and particularly heavy cannabis use, may be associated with an increased risk for developing depressive disorders. There is need for further longitudinal exploration of the association between cannabis use and developing depression, particularly taking into account cumulative exposure to cannabis and potentially significant confounding factors."
  2. Adolescent self-control predicts joint trajectories of marijuana use and depressive mood into young adulthood among urban African Americans and Puerto Ricans by Pahl K, Brook JS, Lee JY in J Behav Med. 2013 May 14: "...We examined adolescent self-control as a predictor of membership in joint developmental trajectories of depressive mood and marijuana use from adolescence to young adulthood...Findings show that the co-occurrence of high levels of marijuana use and depressive mood from adolescence into young adulthood is predicted by low levels of self-control in adolescence. On the other hand, high self-control is associated with low marijuana use and low levels of depression over time. Thus, while deficits in self-control in adolescence constitute a significant risk for maladjustment over time, high self-control exerts a protective factor with regard to marijuana use and depressive mood into young adulthood."
  3. Longitudinal associations of cannabis and illicit drug use with depression, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among Nova Scotia high school students by Rasic D, Weerasinghe S, Asbridge M, Langille DB in Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Apr 1;129(1-2):49-53: &quot:...Illicit drug use, with and without accompanying cannabis use, among high school students increases the risk of depression, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts. Heavy cannabis use alone predicts depression but not suicidal ideation or attempts."

Bipolar

  1. Prevalence and correlates of heavy smoking and nicotine dependence in adolescents with bipolar and cannabis use disorders by Heffner JL, Anthenelli RM, Adler CM, Strakowski SM, Beavers J, Delbello MP in Psychiatry Res. 2013 May 16. pii: S0165-1781(13)00198-4: "The study examined the prevalence and correlates of heavy smoking and nicotine dependence in adolescents with bipolar and cannabis use disorders...Heavy smoking was associated with older age, heavier marijuana use and greater compulsive craving, lifetime diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, illicit drug use disorders, and poorer overall functioning. Nicotine dependence was related to White race, higher current mania severity, and poorer overall functioning. These findings suggest that heavy smoking and nicotine dependence were highly prevalent among these adolescents. Although both were associated with greater physical and psychosocial problems, only heavy smoking was linked to a clear pattern of more severe substance-related and psychiatric problems..."

Suicidality

  1. The risk of adolescent suicide across patterns of drug use: a nationally representative study of high school students in the United States from 1999 to 2009 by Wong SS, Zhou B, Goebert D, Hishinuma ES in Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2013 Jun 7: "...This study examined the association between patterns of substance use and suicidality among a nationally representative sample of high school students in the United States during the last decade...Users of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco also had an increased odds ratio of suicidality..."

Respiratory Issues, Lung Cancer

  1. Effects of marijuana smoking on the lung by Tashkin DP in Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2013 Jun;10(3):239-47: " Regular smoking of marijuana by itself causes visible and microscopic injury to the large airways that is consistently associated with an increased likelihood of symptoms of chronic bronchitis that subside after cessation of use. ...(H)abitual use of marijuana alone does not appear to lead to significant abnormalities in lung function when assessed either cross-sectionally or longitudinally, except for possible increases in lung volumes and modest increases in airway resistance of unclear clinical significance. ... (N)o clear link to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been established...(F)indings from a limited number of well-designed epidemiological studies do not suggest an increased risk for the development of either lung or upper airway cancer from light or moderate use, although evidence is mixed concerning possible carcinogenic risks of heavy, long-term use...(E)vidence is inconclusive regarding possible associated risks for lower respiratory tract infection...(T)he accumulated weight of evidence implies far lower risks for pulmonary complications of even regular heavy use of marijuana compared with the grave pulmonary consequences of tobacco."
  2. Marijuana: Respiratory Tract Effects by Owen KP, Sutter ME, Albertson TE in Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2013 May 29: "Marijuana ... is commonly abused through inhalation and therefore has effects on the lung that are similar to tobacco smoke...(I)t does not appear that marijuana smoke contributes to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease...The carcinogenic effects of marijuana are unclear at this time. Studies are mixed on the ability of marijuana smoke to increase the risk for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and cervical cancer. Some studies show that marijuana is protective for development of malignancy. Marijuana smoke has been shown to have an inhibitory effect on the immune system..."
  3. Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study by Callaghan RC, Allebeck P, Sidorchuk A in Cancer Causes Control. 2013 Jul 12: "...Our primary finding provides initial longitudinal evidence that cannabis use might elevate the risk of lung cancer..."

Behaviour

  1. Concurrent life-course trajectories of employment and marijuana-use: Exploring interdependence of longitudinal outcomes by Hara M, Huang DY, Weiss RE, Hser YI in J Subst Abuse Treat. 2013 Jul 25. pii: S0740-5472(13)00115-3: "... marijuana-use in early adulthood may uniquely lower workforce productivity over age."
  2. [So called ((soft)) drugs: cannabis and the amotivational syndrome] by Schmits E, Quertemont E in Rev Med Liege. 2013 May-Jun;68(5-6):281-6: ; "...a chronic abuse of cannabis is reputed to induce an amotivational syndrome, mainly characterized by a state of apathy. Although the symptoms of the amotivational syndrome are in keeping with some clinical observations, it remains difficult to ascertain whether this clinical picture is causally produced by cannabis abuse."
  3. Adult work commitment, financial stability, and social environment as related to trajectories of marijuana use beginning in adolescence by Brook JS, Lee JY, Finch SJ, Seltzer N, Brook DW in Subst Abus. 2013;34(3):298-305: "...The objective of this study is to examine trajectories of marijuana use among African Americans and Puerto Ricans from adolescence to adulthood, with attention paid to work commitment, financial stability, drug use, and violence....Because chronic marijuana users experienced the most adverse effects in each of the domains, they require more intense clinical intervention than moderate marijuana users."
  4. Effects of Cannabis on Impulsivity: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Findings by Wrege J, Schmidt A, Walter A, Smieskova R, Bendfeldt K, Radue EW, Lang UE, Borgwardt S in Curr Pharm Des. 2013 Jun 14: "We conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for specific effects of cannabis on impulsivity, disinhibition and motor control. The review had a specific focus on neuroimaging findings associated with acute and chronic use of the drug...Functional imaging studies of impulsivity studies suggest that prefrontal blood flow is lower in chronic cannabis users than in controls. Studies of acute administration of THC or marijuana report increased brain metabolism in several brain regions during impulsivity tasks. Structural imaging studies of cannabis users found differences reduced prefrontal volumes and white matter integrity that might mediate the abnormal impulsivity and mood observed in marijuana users. To address the question whether impulsivity as a trait precede cannabis consumption or cannabis aggravates impulsivity and discontinuation of usage more longitudinal study designs are warranted."

Heart, Stroke and Cardio-vascular

  1. Cannabis-Associated Arterial Disease by Desbois AC, Cacoub P in Ann Vasc Surg. 2013 Jul 10. pii: S0890-5096(13)00206-9: "...Cannabis use is associated with arterial disease such as stroke, myocardial infarction, and limbs arteritis..."
  2. Cannabis, ischemic stroke, and transient ischemic attack: a case-control study by Barber PA, Pridmore HM, Krishnamurthy V, Roberts S, Spriggs DA, Carter KN, Anderson NE in Stroke. 2013 Aug;44(8):2327-9: "...In a logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity, cannabis use was associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack ... However after adjusting for tobacco use, an association independent of tobacco could not be confirmed ... This study provides evidence of an association between a cannabis lifestyle that includes tobacco and ischemic stroke. Further research is required to clarify whether there is an association between cannabis and stroke independent of tobacco."
  3. Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study by Callaghan RC, Allebeck P, Sidorchuk A in Cancer Causes Control. 2013 Jul 12: "...Our primary finding provides initial longitudinal evidence that cannabis use might elevate the risk of lung cancer..."

Diabetes

  1. Metabolic effects of chronic cannabis smoking by Muniyappa R, Sable S, Ouwerkerk R, Mari A, Gharib AM, Walter M, Courville A, Hall G, Chen KY, Volkow ND, Kunos G, Huestis MA, Skarulis MC in Diabetes Care. 2013 Aug;36(8):2415-22: "...We examined if chronic cannabis smoking is associated with hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, reduced á-cell function, or dyslipidemia in healthy individuals...Chronic cannabis smoking was associated with visceral adiposity and adipose tissue insulin resistance but not with hepatic steatosis, insulin insensitivity, impaired pancreatic á-cell function, or glucose intolerance."

Short Term Effects

  1. [Risking one's neck for some joints] by Hermanns-L‚ T, Delvenne P, Pi‚rard GE, Rousseau AF, Pi‚rard-franchimont C in Rev Med Liege. 2013 May-Jun;68(5-6):311-4: "... This soft drug exerts psychoactive effects and is responsible for adverse events appearing on the skin, mucosae and eyes. Contact allergic urticaria possibly occurs as well as Raynaud's phenomenon and arteritis resembling Buerger's disease. Glossitis and atrophic stomatitis may be associated with paronditis and uvular angioedema."

Physical Effects

  1. Effects of Cannabis on the Adolescent Brain by Jacobus J, Tapert SF inCurr Pharm Des. 2013 Jun 14: "...(T)eens who engage in heavy marijuana use often show disadvantages in neurocognitive performance, macrostructural and microstructural brain development, and alterations in brain functioning. It remains unclear whether such disadvantages reflect pre-existing differences that lead to increased substances use and further changes in brain architecture and behavioral outcomes..."
  2. The Association between Regular Cannabis Exposure and Alterations of Human Brain Morphology: An Updated Review of the Literature by Lorenzetti V, Solowij N, Fornito A, Lubman D, Yucel M in Curr Pharm Des. 2013 Jun 14: "...This review examines evidence from human structural neuroimaging investigations of regular cannabis users...The published findings indicate that regular cannabis use is associated with alterations in medial temporal, frontal and cerebellar brain regions. Greater brain morphological alterations were evident among samples that used at higher doses for longer periods. However, the evidence for an association between brain morphology and cannabis use parameters was mixed. Further, there is poor evidence for an association between measures of brain morphology and of psychopathology symptoms/neurocognitive performance. Overall, numerous methodological issues characterize the literature to date...These factors make it difficult to draw firm conclusions from the existing findings..."
  3. Neuroimaging Studies of Acute Effects of THC and CBD in Humans and Animals: A Systematic Review by Batalla A, Crippa JA, Busatto GF, Guimaraes FS, Zuardi AW, Valverde O, Atakan Z, McGuire PK, Bhattacharyya S, Martin-Santos R in Curr Pharm Des. 2013 Jun 14: "...We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of acute cannabis exposure on brain function in humans and in experimental animals...Functional neuroimaging studies have provided extensive evidence for the acute modulation of brain function by cannabinoids, but further studies are needed in order to understand the neural mechanisms underlying these effects..."
  4. Chronic effects of cannabis on sensory gating by Broyd SJ, Greenwood LM, Croft RJ, Dalecki A, Todd J, Michie PT, Johnstone SJ, Solowij N in nt J Psychophysiol. 2013 Apr 28. pii: S0167-8760(13)00117-7: "Chronic cannabis use has been associated with neurocognitive deficits, alterations in brain structure and function, and with psychosis. This study investigated the effects of chronic cannabis use on P50 sensory-gating in regular users, and explored the association between sensory gating, cannabis use history and the development of psychotic-like symptoms. ...Long-term cannabis users were found to have worse sensory gating ratios and difference scores compared to short-term users and controls. P50 metrics did not correlate significantly with any measure of psychotic-like symptoms in cannabis users. These results suggest that prolonged exposure to cannabis results in impaired P50 sensory-gating in long-term cannabis users. While it is possible that these deficits may have pre-dated cannabis use and reflect a vulnerability to cannabis use, their association with increasing years of cannabis use suggests that this is not the case..."

Beneficial Effects

  1. Cannabidiol provides long-lasting protection against the deleterious effects of inflammation in a viral model of multiple sclerosis: A role for A2A receptors by Mecha M, Feli£ A, I¤igo PM, Mestre L, Carrillo-Salinas FJ, Guaza C in Neurobiol Dis. 2013 Jul 11. pii: S0969-9961(13)00193-9: "...our findings highlight the anti-inflammatory effects of CBD in this viral model of MS and demonstrate the significant therapeutic potential of this compound for the treatment of pathologies with an inflammatory component."

General Overviews

  1. The adverse health effects of chronic cannabis use by Hall W, Degenhardt L in Drug Test Anal. 2013 Jul 8: "This paper summarizes the most probable of the adverse health effects of regular cannabis use sustained over years...These most probable adverse effects of regular use include a dependence syndrome, impaired respiratory function, cardiovascular disease, adverse effects on adolescent psychosocial development and mental health, and residual cognitive impairment."
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