Brain Scans Reveal Marijuana-Like Medicine Could Effectively Treat PTSD Stephen C. Webster - The Raw Story
go to original May 16, 2013

Dr. Sue Sisley Talks About Medical Marijuana, PTSD and Scientific Freedom (MedicalMarijuana411)

Marijuana-like medicines that lack the plant’s psychoactive properties can be used to effectively treat some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers at New York University Langone Medical Center explain in a study published this week in the scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Using brain imaging technology, researchers studied the CB1 receptors in the brains of people suffering from PTSD and found that they had more of these receptors in gray matter associated with fear and anxiety than people who’d experienced trauma but did not have PTSD.

They looked into whether the receptors would be more available after noticing that many PTSD sufferers, a vast majority of them former members of the military, tend to self-medicate with marijuana abuse. Marijuana is known to contain varying concentrations of endocannabinoids, which are already present in the human brain, designed to act like a switch to turn on the body’s endocannabinoid system.

Research suggests the endocannabinoid system plays an important role in regulating chemicals associated with elevated stress levels, leading NYU scientists to portend that marijuana-like drugs that increase the level of endocannabinoids in the brain could lead to an effective treatment for PTSD-sufferers.

Read the rest at The Raw Story

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