Research carried out by scientists at the Illawarra Institute of Health and Medical Research in New South Wales (Australia) paves the way for a new treatment for schizophrenia, through the effect of a cannabis compound that has been found to be effective in an experiment with rats The study suggests that the compound may improve schizophrenia-specific cognitive decline, without any of the side effects of current drugs.
Currently available medication is capable of treating the positive symptoms of the disease (positive = symptoms that do not appear in healthy individuals), such as hallucinations and delusions, but is much less effective in treating cognitive and negative symptoms (negative = disruption of the individual’s normal behavior) such as reduced speech or decreased social interaction.
Also, considering that antipsychotics can cause a wide range of side effects , including muscle spasms, restlessness, tremors, as well as drowsiness, or dizziness, there are powerful reasons to consider alternative therapies.
So the researchers looked at the potential of a cannabis compound called cannabidiol (the main component of the cannabis plant) to treat the most troublesome symptoms of schizophrenia. They first reviewed 27 previous studies: “From this review, we found that cannabidiol will not improve learning and memory in healthy brains, but could improve aspects of learning and memory in diseases associated with cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer’s disease, as well as neurological and neuroinflammatory disorders “, explains Katrina Green to the journal Nature.
Using these data, the experts examined whether cannabidiol could reduce cognitive decline in an experiment with rodents, injecting them with 10 milligrams per kilogram of cannabidiol for 3 weeks. They tested the rats’ cognition and working memory using rewarded alternation in T-maze tests and object recognition tests. Additionally, they tested their sociability using a social interaction test.
The results of the experiment
“ We found that cannabidiol was able to restore recognition and working memory, as well as social behavior to normal levels . These results are interesting because they suggest that cannabidiol may be able to treat some of the symptoms of schizophrenia that are apparently resistant to existing drugs Furthermore, the treatment did not alter body weight or food intake, which are common side effects of antipsychotic drug treatment, “says Ashleigh Osborne, co-author of the study.
Although the results are encouraging, the scientists note that more tests are needed to see if this compound has the same therapeutic effect in humans.
Referencia: Improved Social Interaction, Recognition and Working Memory with Cannabidiol Treatment in a Prenatal Infection (poly I:C) Rat Model. Ashleigh L Osborne, Nadia Solowij, Ilijana Babic, Xu-Feng Huang and Katrina Weston-Green. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Jun;42(7):1447-1457. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.40. Nature
