It is a proven fact that the prominence of cannabis in the current medical paradigm has been noticeably increasing and has become a valid alternative when facing various diseases and neurological conditions.
One of the main compounds found in medicinal cannabis is cannabidiol, currently undergoing multiple studies to reliably determine its positive impact on neurological pathologies such as psychosis or schizophrenia.
The cannabinoid arises as a step forward in alternative medicine to traditional drugs with the aim of softening or controlling both the symptoms and the effects derived from suffering from these diseases. His study constitutes an open door to the treatment of psychiatric disorders while addressing it is by no means an easy task.
The human brain is a complex organ and science is working hard to unravel not only its capabilities but its mysteries. The path of the study of CBD as a possible advance in the right direction already yields very interesting data about its anti-psychotic properties.
Schizophrenia
This chronic neurological disease It affects 1% of the population with a very early onset profile, showing its first symptoms during adolescence. Its disabling potential and the worsening of the disease reduce the staggering figure of 10 years of life expectancy for those who suffer from it compared to the rest of the population.
In this psychotic mental disorder that sharply modifies the perception not only of the real spectrum but also of thought. It is common among patients suffering from this condition to suffer hallucinations, delusions and deep-seated paranoid thoughts that can even lead to disorganized thinking and language.
In this way, this pathology with mental detriment is based on a disabling disorder associated with psychiatric symptoms that present with disturbances in the CNS (central nervous system) manifesting, as we mentioned above, at the time of puberty.
It is due to this early onset in combination with the frequency of hospital admissions, as well as the need for psychosocial support and the loss of operability and productivity and intertwined with the associated deficits and its chronic nature that makes it the 5th most costly ailment for the population. society.
Cannabis
Cannabis is a complex plant with more than 100 types of cannabinoids. Its main psychoactive compound is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which activates cannabinoid receptors to produce their “high” effects.
El cannabidiol (CBD) is another cannabinoid that has attracted increasing attention recently. Unlike THC, CBD does not bind to cannabinoid receptors and has shown different, and sometimes even counteracting, effects.
Cannabidiol: new therapeutic target
Thus, there are many voices that claim that THC causes psychosis. Although there are no conclusive studies in this regard, as we mentioned, CBD, non-psychoactive cannabinoid faces the psychoactive effect of THC.
The traditional treatments that were applied to patients with schizophrenia consisted of the administration of antipsychotic medications which were accompanied by a large number of side effects among which we can highlight considerable weight gain, excessive drowsiness, marked restlessness and pathologies such as diabetes or high cholesterol.
Lately the interest in research on the cannabinoid system endogenous makes progress with the possibility of revealing the property of this component as a therapeutic target to confront the neurological disease of schizophrenia.
The basis of these studies is the homeostatic role developed by this system with regard to cerebral neurotransmission and inflammatory processes, having reached reliable conclusions about the presence of a variety of alterations of the endogenous cannabinoid system in schizophrenic patients.
Based on these data, work is being done on the therapeutic use of balancing the endocannabinoid indices through the use of the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol in various clinical studies that assess its antipsychotic properties in patients suffering from this severe ailment.
Its recent incorporation into laboratory analyzes still provides little data to add to sufficient scientific literature in the field of these antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol, but the evidence in this regard not only extols the improvements in schizophrenia patients treated with this component but rather show Fewer negative effects than antipsychotics traditionally used.
Types of cannabidiol for the treatment of schizophrenia
Every time you isolate yourself in Pure cannabidiol, without traces of THC, its pharmacotherapeutic efficacy when facing the spectrum of schizophrenic pathology is yielding very positive results due to its nature as a mesolimbic dopaminergic attenuator.
Its operation is successful since one of the leading factors during the evolution of schizophrenia is dopamine, which constitutes an active neurotransmitter in several areas of the brain whose great detractor are cannabinoids.
The location of dopamine-producing cells is the reticulated part of the substantia nigra of the midbrain, where the clustering of cannabinoid receptors occurs. This circumstance is what allows the medicinal relationship of CBD to be manifested in the treatment of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.
Its antipsychotic effect with few adverse effects allows its use in its pure state. when it comes to mitigating the side effects produced by usual pharmacology.
Cannabidiol as a complementary treatment
As we mentioned previously, the use of cannabis strains with high CBD content has been associated with fewer psychotic symptoms. While THC produces acute psychotic-like symptoms in healthy volunteers, CBD pretreatment decreases THC-induced psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment.
The potential beneficial effects of CBD on cognition in patients with schizophrenia are of critical importance, as cognitive deficits are common in schizophrenia (up to 75%-85% of patients), generally precede other symptoms, and respond minimally to available pharmacological treatments.
The results of different studies who analyzed the CBD effects as monotherapy for treatment-resistant schizophrenia showed a improvement substantial in 30% of the analyzed population.
Subsequent studies on the anti-psychotic effects of CBD where patients were subjected to flexible doses of up to 400 mg/day showed improvement in psychotic symptoms over the course of 4 weeks.
Since then, the anti-psychotic properties of CBD have been investigated in different clinical trials with mixed results. In 2012 the first double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was published on the therapeutic effects of CBD (600-800 mg/day for 4 weeks) compared to amisulpride in acute psychosis in individuals with schizophrenia.
The study concluded that CBD is as effective as amisulpride in the treatment of psychotic symptoms and has fewer adverse effects, including fewer additional pyramidal symptoms and weight gain.
different studies
In reference to the data mentioned above, it should be noted that despite its slow incorporation into the pharmaceutical market as an effective measure in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, there are many studies that have been carried out on the virtues of this component of marijuana with results more than satisfactory.
As anecdotal data, it is prudent to point out that in the first case report on the use of CBD as an antipsychotic medication (published by Zuardi), a study is described on a 19-year-old patient with schizophrenia who was given treatment with CBD up to 1500 mg daily for a period of 4 weeks, the results of which showed improvement. of acute psychotic symptoms.
In this way, currently CBD has not only proven to be beneficial in the treatment of different and very varied medical conditions, but recent data show the effectiveness of its use in psychiatric disorders and the aforementioned schizophrenia.
Research Study Cases
Observing the relationship between CBD and schizophrenia is easy by analyzing the different existing research in this regard. Proof of the success of the results obtained in these studies is the application of pharmacology in this regard in the daily environment.
GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, a UK-based pharmaceutical company, developed an experimental CBD medication that they administered to a patient population suffering from schizophrenia.
These were 88 individuals whose traditional antipsychotic treatments did not show positive results or any type of promising evolution who were subjected to a research in which one part was treated with CBD and the other with a placebo.
The results of the test determined that the group of patients undergoing treatment with the drug made with CBD reduced the symptoms associated with schizophrenia.
Another interesting case is the 27 studies carried out by Dr. Green at the University of Wollogong, who took into consideration the therapeutic potential of this component and concluded that CBD has the potential to significantly improve both memory and learning in the brain of patients with mental disorders and neuronal deterioration.
A test carried out by researchers at King's College London was catapulted as the first placebo-controlled trial of combined application and over a wide time frame.
For six weeks, they administered a daily dose of CBD to 83 patients with schizophrenia along with their prescribed antipsychotic treatment.
In their conclusions, the researchers state the finding of significantly reduced symptomatology in the patients to whom CBD was administered complementary, in addition to notable improvements in their health. For their part, the patients' personal psychiatrists reported a general improvement in their health.
The authors showed that these data shed more light on the evidence of CBC as a beneficial element in the treatment of psychoses in general and schizophrenia in particular.
It is thus concluded that the effects of cannabidiol do not seem to be dependent on dopamine receptor antagonism and that this element can clearly represent a path of success in the treatment of schizophrenic disorders.
Conclusion
The interrelation between CBD and schizophrenia has occurred in multiple ways, with clear evidence of the effectiveness of cannabidiol as an alternative to traditional antipsychotic pharmacology for the treatment of schizophrenia.
There is no shortage of evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of this agent used under the prescribed parameters and with controlled doses to control any side effects.
Therefore, the study of its effectiveness does not end and seeks to thoroughly review all its effects in that spectrum of patients to whom it is supplied, since these must be analyzed in depth and with total rigor.