Reply #21: another potential area for research for PTSD and cannabis is hippocampal neurogenesis [View All]

http://www.biopsychiatry.com/cannabinoids-neogenesis.htm

We show that both embryonic and adult rat hippocampal NS/PCs are immunoreactive for CB1 cannabinoid receptors, indicating that cannabinoids could act on CB1 receptors to regulate neurogenesis. This hypothesis is supported by further findings that HU210 promotes proliferation, but not differentiation, of cultured embryonic hippocampal NS/PCs likely via a sequential activation of CB1 receptors, G(i/o) proteins, and ERK signaling. Chronic, but not acute, HU210 treatment promoted neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of adult rats and exerted anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects. X-irradiation of the hippocampus blocked both the neurogenic and behavioral effects of chronic HU210 treatment, suggesting that chronic HU210 treatment produces anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects likely via promotion of hippocampal neurogenesis.


The benefit of cannabis may lie in its capacity to deal with the neurological effect PTSD seems to have on some people.

http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/uchealth/2010/03/01/hippocampus-ptsd/

March 2010 -

The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 40 veterans – 20 with combat-related PTSD and 20 without – and found that the region known as the CA3/dentate gyrus was more than 11 percent smaller on average in the veterans with PTSD.

“This is the first time in human subjects that PTSD has been shown to be associated with changes in certain specific hippocampal regions and not in others,” says Schuff.

The hippocampus, a finger-joint size structure found in both hemispheres of the brain, is essential for laying down memories, as well as for retrieving them, explains study author Thomas C. Neylan, MD, director of the PTSD program at SFVAMC and a professor of psychiatry at UCSF. He notes that recurring or intrusive memory of traumatic events is a common symptom of PTSD, “and thus the hippocampus is of great interest in PTSD research.”

The DEA has gotten to the point at which it is actively harming research that may provide relief from pain and suffering - and perhaps even a cure for some veterans - because of its irrational insistence on continuing to erroneously schedule cannabis as a substance with no medical usage.

This is when you know you've lost moral authority. When you prevent others from benefiting from medical care because of your own self interests and greed. (this also describes the entire American health care system too, of course. Our govt and our betterment at a nation are being held hostage by flat earthers in all areas of national life.)