A new study published in the October 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience says marijuana exhibits an antidepressant effect, but only at low doses. At higher doses, the opposite effect was observed, with serotonin levels dropping off even lower than the control group.
Dr. Gabriella Gobbi and colleagues, of McGill University and Le Centre de Recherche Fernand Seguin of Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine, injected rats with a synthetic cannabinoid and then subjected them to the Forced Swim Test, a test used to measure depression in animals. At the low dose, the cannabinoids produced an antidepressant effect in the rats accompanied by increased activity in the neurons that produce serotonin. Increasing the dose beyond a set point, however, reversed the effect and serotonin levels dropped, becoming even lower than the control animals that did not receive the drug.
Because of the difficulty in controlling the dose when marijuana is smoked, the authors say there are problems with using it directly as an antidepressant. "Excessive cannabis use in people with depression poses high risk of psychosis," said Dr. Gobbi in a press release. Instead, she and her team are focusing their research on a new class of drugs which would enhance the effects of the brain's natural endo-cannabinoids.
Just because an animal on a high dose of marijuana is immobile for a longer period of time than a sober one that does not mean it is depressed, it means it is stoned and humans alike don’t move around a lot when stoned.
But I concur that using cannabis against depression is not a good idea. I went into an episode of psychosis after using cannabis excessively while unemployed, broke and blue.
I thought that it was excessive levels of seratonin that produce psychosis, at least that’s what the medication I got at the time was suposed to block. How does that fit in with the study finding a drop in seratonin levels of those animals that took high doses?
Oh, and I was searching for some tips to naturally alliviate depression, got any of those? I know there is food, exercise and meditation but what about the specifics. What type of foods? What kind of exercise, long distance running or weightlifting? What type of meditation, is breathing exercises enough or should one delve into focusing on the third eye or practice tantra in solitude?
I smoke pot on a somewhat daily basis. Not quite everyday, but at least 4x wk, and only in the evening. It really does and did lift any kind of depression I might have had. It makes me feel happy, yet I’m not hysterically laughing, like some people whom smoke it can get. I just like the taste and the end result.
Is synthetic cannabinoid available in suppository form ?
Not sure if this phenomena is directly related to your serotonin level, but the intensifying of experience ganja engenders works against you if your thoughts stray to a bad place.
I’ve suffered from depression for many years and was only diagnosed a couple of years ago. For me, pot has worked better than any anti-depressants i’ve been prescribed, and as the swim test would indicate, it worked great on low doses, just a puff here and there throughout the day, but higher levels just made me tired and well.. stoned. It became a joke with my brother who lives with me, because he could tell if i had been smoking because of the ambition I had. In another country I would advocate it as an anti-depressant when used properly, but because of the legality of it, I cannot.
So here’s my dilemma. Prescribed anti-depressants have done next to nothing, except help me handle anxiety attacks, which were at times severe. I can’t smoke pot anymore because of my job and random testing. Within weeks of quitting I started noticing all of the classic symptoms returning fast and furious. I’m not sad or bummed out all the time as most are because of the way i am vigilantly optimistic, but i just cant find the ambition that i need to get through most days.
Here’s the question I pose to you. What anti-depressants are most likely to give me the same results as a low level of marijuana?
A stiumlant drug would work the best
serequel is the only pharm. drug that has ever helped me with anxiety. It helps me sleep 8 hours at night at 25-50 mg. No more or you will be a zombie. good luck
I hope someone can help…maybe I am not the only one with this problem. I am not a pot smoker but I am married to one. We have severe arguments about the subject. I cant help but question mind blurying drugs. However, my husband shows many symptoms of depresseion now. He has smoked pot since he was 15 years old. Now with me around and the tests at his new job he cant smoke as much anymore and becomes more irritable every day. I can not motivate him to do anything. But I would like to help … My question is the same as Mr/Mrs T. What can help? e.g. Food (What types?), Excersise (What type, How often?), or meditation (What types?) Appreciate any input! PS. Accepting pot in our house is not an option!
well i mean, enjoy your divorce or his suicide. you decide whats more important. your husbands health, or haveing a small amount of pot in his life. seems easy to me.
These studies, always promising, inevitably conclude the same way: We need to create a new class of drugs, patentable and highly profitable, that mimic the effects of marijuana. Why not draw a more sensible conclusion: Marijuana administered in the proper doses under supervision has an anti-depressant effect. ANY drug can be overused and defeat the purpose of treatment.
@ Sharkasm: you may find Kava Kava or St. John’s Wort useful for your depression. They are usually available in any pharmacy shop.
Running for 40 minutes a few times a week has helped me with my depression. I’ve had depression for 20 years, taking antidepressants for the first 10. Most had bad side effects, didn’t work, or stopped working after a couple of years. After 10 years, I decided to try a small amount of pot once a week. I was able to quit the antidepressants right away. The side effects are much better, its cheaper and is not as addictive as antidepressants. Too bad it’s not legal.
I have for year been nu-willing to see doctors about my depression. In the bast I have been diagnosed with both bi poler and deeply depressed and the last time I took mood stabilizers or and antidepressant it led so a seizure disorder and they then wanted to medicate me for that was well and for the past 4 years i have been doing medical marijuana and not taken any drugs for either other illness and been fine with both. I think that says alot about why the big drug companies have all the money and anyone who wants to compete with them is going to lose.
I ended up suffering from major depression after getting worse and worse on anti-depressants
After reaching breaking point I used cannabis, as it was the only thing that made me feel remotely normal and able to think objectively
It helped enormously in stopping my medication, the severe withdrawl symptoms from the ad’s were greatly lessened
For the first time in years I could feel happy, my insomnia went away, I could focus on things, years of tension melted away, without the cannabis to help I really do not want to imagine where I would be now
It took some time to get to grips with my issues, the cannabis letting me think more objectively, rather than the normal overwhelming negativity, aided me greatly in getting to the root of my problems, don’t get me wrong it still took a lot of effort but it led to me taking responsibility for my own life and gave me back control
From my experience the “psychosis” that can come from overuse is merely the amplification of underlying issues, people get caught up in it rather than take control of the experience/situation, easier said than done I know
Reading about mental health issues while under the influence can help, the deepened thinking when directed to the underlying causes can be hugely theraputic, questioning your behaviour, where it came from, why it still affects you etc Understanding what is happening/happened to you and making sense of it is a huge part of recovery
As with all drugs, if you choose to use then show it some respect and don’t abuse it, using it to hide from life or taking as much as you can, as fast as you can is going to cause some serious problems
First of all, let me say that antidepressants kill 40,000 people each year! Marijuana deaths? Zero. Next, let me tell all the ignorant uneducated people about how much funding goes to stupid journals like the one this article is written about (including millions of dollars directly from pharmaceutical corporations funding, thus biasing, UNIVERSITY research). Drug manufacturers spend $6 billion every year on advertising, and create clinical trials and tests, just like this one, and then smear the results, take out the findings where the drugs can increase chance of suicide by up to SEVEN TIMES. Can I make it ANY clearer? Obviosly when you have 300,000,000 ingrate masses being pushed drugs through every media outlet and psychiatrist and general practitioner that can make money for the government via taxes, FDA bribery, revolving door of FDA psychiatrists sponsored by Lilly, Merck, and every other pharmaceutical company, you’re going to see bullshit like this. AND you begin to see widespread corruption of masses, being indoctrinated into the notion that they are mentally ill. The hopeless, now suddenly psychotic masses then scramble to try the new happy pills that our helpful, honest government fully approved. They are stressing happiness, immediacy, they are stressing immediate gratification, and it is completely scientifically unfounded and only supported my overarching marketing campaigns. People generally want as much happiness, immediate gratification as they can get, they don’t need it. Humans need “medicine”, they do not need psychotropic “pharmaceuticals”. While marijuana users are busy not reading this article because they are experiencing first-hand the antidepressant qualities of the plant, those already viamently opposed to it’s use are blindly taking in any information that is pleasing to hear and that sounds “true”.
And of course, since dope is sold on the street it can’t be safe, obviosly, I mean, even though it has been habitually used for thousands of years, and new antidepressants can skip being tested for a fee of $100,000 per drug, miracles of chemisty like Prozac, cymbalta, effexor are much safer for millions of people to take every day of their lives.
…even though they’ve been around for a year or two and our government lied and didn’t test them and kept marijuana illegal because it has no medical use and leads to addiction, use of other drugs.
• In reality, the nature of pharmaceutical drugs is to manage symptoms indefinitely, and use other drugs to combat side effects of the original drugs. Sounds hypocritical? Looks hypocritical. Smells like bullshit.
It seems like marijuana is the only drug that falls under the scrutiny of requiring zero side effects to be considered a valid option. Why is that?
Have you taken the time to look at the side effects from pharmaceutical drugs? They are quite scary.
Why is alcohol and chemical injected tobacco legal? Not too mention the toxic filters left behind in the environment. Alcohol is acceptable right? it is good for us. Complete hypocrisy.
It is all a big conspiracy if you ask me. We are conditioned to think that illegal only means wrong and immoral. It is this type of thinking that stops us from forming our own conclusions outside of the law. We are not talking murder here. Why don’t we all start to think for ourselves for once and stop being strayed by others with greedy selfish agendas.
If you shun marijuana than you should absolutely not be in agreement with any modern medicine. At least be fair with your conclusions.
Think outside of illegal verses legal and compare the facts.
I personally have been using marijuana for over 2 years now to help battle my depression. At first i listened to what the docs told me and took the several different types of drugs that they riddled my body with. It left me hollow and empty just a shell of a person who could feel nothing but hey… atleast im not sad. Then one day i couldn’t stand the emptiness anymore and quit taking the pills. The stop of taking this medication thrust me into a downward spiral until i took up a former past time. I started smoking marijuana 1-2 times a day and i have never feltt happier. I no longer get down feelings or feel panic in social situations. I go through each day with a smile on my face. I decided to bring it up to my doctor about a year a go and his response was overall good. He signed off on my marijuana use and now im free to smoke as I please. Everyone needs to let go of the connections between marijuana and crime and realize it is a substance that helps people.
I am in complete agreement about marijuana being used in controlled medical doses. I am tired of all of these mind altering man made medications that DO not work and if they do, have so many side effects. Lets just keep letting the drug companies kill us while they get rich instead of using a God given medication. Pot helps me have the motivation and confidence that is really inside myself instead of being brought down by everyone’s legalism. So we are all different. I need medication and you don’t….but for goodness sakes let me choose it myself instead of trusting peoplq who are profiting from using me as a Guinea pig. I feel like I am medical evidence with some things I’ve been through as well as genetic family history that THC does help certain people with depression. Alas, as is everything its all about the money.
I have had lifetime major depression and generalized anxiety and started taking prescription drugs for this 13 years ago. I have taken/tried about 25 different drugs for these issues, and most have just caused me hellish side effects with little antidepressant or anti-anxiety effect. I now take Wellbutrin, Prozac, Klonopin, and Neurontin, and all it does is make me tired and more depressed. I’ve started a taper off Prozac and feel like crap. The Wellbutrin and Klonopin I’ve been on for 13 years and am just totally addicted to them without any therapeutic effect anymore. Xanax worked for anxiety, but incredibly addictive, so I use it sparingly. Other things have worked much better for me, such as diet, exercise, and meditation, although the depression prevents me from doing them.
For those who have asked for more specifics on these, here is just my own experience of what has helped me, I’m not a doctor, and I’m not prescribing:
Diet: Try to stay away from sugar and fast-burning carbs like white bread, pasta, white rice. Try to make the majority of intake protein and vegetables.
Exercise: Proven to work as well as SSRIs, but it must be aerobic exercise (treadmill, running, biking, anything that makes you huff and puff) 30 minutes three times a week absolute minimum. I did this for a while and it had a drastic positive effect, but I couldn’t keep it up.
Meditation: Learn and practice mindfulness meditation. One technique is trying to maintain a constant awareness of one’s breath. No lotus position, no sitting, this is simply trying to maintain focus of attention. If practiced regularly (20-30 min daily) it changes brain chemistry for the positive and alleviates depression (for me).