Are YOU addicted to marijuana? Study finds ‘promising results’ for pill to treat cannabis use disorder affecting up to 30% of users
An experimental pill to treat cannabis use disorders has shown ‘very encouraging’ results in initial trials.
The drug, known as AEF0117, was found to reduce the perceived positive effects of marijuana, including feeling “high,” by up to 38 percent by Columbia University researchers.
Marijuana use has reached record highs among young adults. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in three high school students are drug users and one in six regularly use marijuana.
And 35 million Americans last year reported taking the drug in some form.
Doctors have reported increasing cases of a rare but deadly condition linked to significant marijuana use, which causes severe vomiting, dehydration and abdominal pain.
One study estimated that people who use cannabis have a 10 percent chance of becoming addicted
Marijuana can be used recreationally in 22 US states
Meg Haney, the study’s lead author and director of the cannabis research lab at Columbia University, said the preliminary findings on the treatment were “very encouraging.”
Currently, there are no medications to treat cannabis use disorder, which affects up to 30 percent of cannabis users, according to the CDC.
Cannabis use disorder is defined as people who are unable to stop using marijuana, even though it causes health and social problems, such as their work and relationships.
One study estimated that people who use cannabis have a 10 percent chance of becoming addicted.
In addition, people who started using it in adolescence are more likely to develop a cannabis use disorder.
The drug was given to 29 adult men and women with a cannabis use disorder, who smoked an average of about three grams of marijuana a day, six days a week.
Participants received a low dose of AEF0117 of 0.06 milligram or a higher dose of one milligram.
They were given the drug or a placebo for five days. Participants took the pill every morning at 9 a.m. and smoked cannabis 3.5 hours later.
Questions were asked to determine whether they felt high and whether they felt a good effect five times, starting 20 minutes after smoking until two hours later.
Researchers found that the lower dose reduced the subjective good effects of cannabis by 19 percent. The higher amount “significantly” reduced the positive impact of cannabis by 38 percent compared to the placebo, the study paper said.
It concluded: ‘These data suggest that AEF0117 is a safe and potentially effective treatment for CUD.’
Only the higher dose noticeably reduced the amount of cannabis the participants consumed later in the day.
The drug did not cause any serious side effects and did not cause cannabis withdrawal symptoms.
The pill is a compound derived from pregnenolone – a hormone produced naturally in the body by the adrenal gland on top of the kidneys.
AEF0117 works in the same parts of the brain as THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in cannabis, and appears to counteract the ‘high’.
It inhibits the CB1 receptors responsible for the addictive effects of cannabis.
Ms. Haney said the findings should be replicated in larger trials, such as a phase 2b trial enrolling 300 participants in the US, with results expected as early as next year.
The research has been published in the journal Naturopathy.
Several studies in the past have also found links between cannabis and mental health problems such as depression and schizophrenia, although the exact cause is not clear.
Marijuana can cause psychosis, affecting the way you think, make decisions, deal with emotions, and deal with reality.
It can also interfere with brain development in young people.
But it may be that people who are schizophrenic simply use cannabis to relieve their symptoms.