A single dose of cannabidiol would reduce certain brain dysfunctions seen in people with psychosis.
Recreational cannabidiol will not be available over the counter in France. In recent months, several “coffee-shops” have opened in France, before closing one after the other. This substance does not contain the psychoactive effects found in THC and is the subject of numerous medical studies.
A study published in the JAMA Psychiatry shows that it would have positive effects in the treatment of psychosis.
Three brain regions involved in psychosis
33 young adults at high risk of developing psychosis participated in the study: 16 received a single dose of cannabidiol (CBD), 17 took a placebo, and another group of young people served as a control group. They all performed an activity that uses memory in order to monitor brain activity in three regions of the brain involved in psychosis using MRI scans.
The latter was abnormal in patients at high risk of psychosis compared to healthy subjects, but those who received the dose of CBD had less severe abnormal activity compared to the placebo group.
For researchers at King’s College London, this means that cannabidiol could help restore normal brain activity in people with psychosis.
An effective and well-tolerated treatment
“One of the great advantages of cannabidiol is that it is safe and seems to be really well tolerated, which makes it sort of an ideal treatment,” says lead author Dr Sagnik Bhattacharyya. of this work. Most of the current treatments have serious side effects, which means that some patients cannot be cured.
“The majority of treatments for people with psychosis are drugs that were discovered in the 1950s and which unfortunately don’t work for everyone.” The researchers will now launch a larger study to confirm their results.
In France, for the time being, only one cannabidiol-based drug is authorized: Sativex, used in the treatment of spasticity and multiple sclerosis. This study is interesting but small.
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