Israeli researcher finds the use of marijuana may help post-traumatic stress disorder patients.
The use of marijuana could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients, an Israeli study has found.
The study, carried out by Eti Ganon-Elazar, a research student at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology, set out to examine the effectiveness of marijuana as a medical treatment for patients coping with post-traumatic stress.
Post traumatic stress disorder occurs in a minority of people who experience a traumatic event, such as a car accident or terror attack, and involves stress which is prolonged for months or, at times, years after the event. Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder include nightmares, flashbacks, hyper-vigilance and avoidance of anything that may recall the trauma.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, was based on a synthetic form of marijuana administered to rats, which present physiological responses to stress similar to those of human beings.
"There are receptors in the brain for marijuana called cannabinoids," University of Haifa's Dr. Irit Akirav, who supervised the study, told The Media Line. "We activated these receptors in a specific area of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved in stress, emotional memory and response to traumatic events."
"Stress has certain effects on this emotional learning," she explained. "For example stress impairs extinction learning, which is your ability to learn that something is safe. People who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder have a problem with extinction learning. What we did basically was to show that if you activate the receptors of marijuana in this area of the brain you can block or reverse such stress, thus allowing people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder to learn that something is safe."
"The study suggests that you may be able to use synthetic marijuana in post traumatic stress disorder patients," Dr Akirav concluded. "The next stage is to do pilot studies with humans."
Eti Ganon-Elazar, a PhD candidate in Dr Akirav's lab, conducted the study.
"Let's say someone has been in a terrorist attack on a bus," Ganon-Elazar told The Media Line. "The bus becomes a symbol of the trauma and the person may avoid buses for a while."
"Most people that experience such a traumatic event are going to be okay and eventually take buses again," she said. "But some people already have a problem, for example they have been exposed to a second trauma at some point in their life. These people often find it very hard to go on a bus again, because their system is vulnerable. The general idea is that the use of marijuana may help such people to learn that it's safe to take a bus again."
Ganon-Elazar's study was conducted in three parts.
"First we exposed a group of rats to a traumatic event, which is a very mild electrical shock administered in a dark room," she explained. "Rats don't like light, and they usually stay in dark rooms, but the shock caused the rats to avoid entering the dark room. After a while, though, the rats enter the dark room, don't get shocked, and learn that the dark room is no longer dangerous."
"We took some of the rats, though, and exposed them to an additional stress by putting them on a high platform in a totally different room," Ganon-Elazar said. "Rats have a fear of heights and we found that the rats who were exposed to this extra stress had a much harder time learning that the dark room is safe. These rats have a learning deficiency which causes them to avoid entering the dark room."
"Then we took a third group of rats, which were exposed to both the trauma of the shock and the additional stress of being put on a high platform, and gave them a shot of a synthetic drug that mimics the activity of the active materials inside marijuana," Ganon-Elazar explains. "Even though they were exposed to additional stress, this third group returned to the dark room after a few days just like the first group that wasn't exposed to additional stress."
"From this we concluded that the use of synthetic marijuana can actually reverse the impairing effect that exposure to stress causes on our ability to learn that something is safe."
Post traumatic stress disorder is relatively common in Israel, in particular among victims of terror attacks, Holocaust survivors and veterans of Israeli wars.
The Israeli government has not approved the use of marijuana by those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, awaiting the results of a clinical trial.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Media Line
Author: Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Contact: The Media Line
Copyright: 2009 The Media Line
Website: Israeli Study Finds Pot May Help Terror Victims
The use of marijuana could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients, an Israeli study has found.
The study, carried out by Eti Ganon-Elazar, a research student at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology, set out to examine the effectiveness of marijuana as a medical treatment for patients coping with post-traumatic stress.
Post traumatic stress disorder occurs in a minority of people who experience a traumatic event, such as a car accident or terror attack, and involves stress which is prolonged for months or, at times, years after the event. Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder include nightmares, flashbacks, hyper-vigilance and avoidance of anything that may recall the trauma.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, was based on a synthetic form of marijuana administered to rats, which present physiological responses to stress similar to those of human beings.
"There are receptors in the brain for marijuana called cannabinoids," University of Haifa's Dr. Irit Akirav, who supervised the study, told The Media Line. "We activated these receptors in a specific area of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved in stress, emotional memory and response to traumatic events."
"Stress has certain effects on this emotional learning," she explained. "For example stress impairs extinction learning, which is your ability to learn that something is safe. People who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder have a problem with extinction learning. What we did basically was to show that if you activate the receptors of marijuana in this area of the brain you can block or reverse such stress, thus allowing people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder to learn that something is safe."
"The study suggests that you may be able to use synthetic marijuana in post traumatic stress disorder patients," Dr Akirav concluded. "The next stage is to do pilot studies with humans."
Eti Ganon-Elazar, a PhD candidate in Dr Akirav's lab, conducted the study.
"Let's say someone has been in a terrorist attack on a bus," Ganon-Elazar told The Media Line. "The bus becomes a symbol of the trauma and the person may avoid buses for a while."
"Most people that experience such a traumatic event are going to be okay and eventually take buses again," she said. "But some people already have a problem, for example they have been exposed to a second trauma at some point in their life. These people often find it very hard to go on a bus again, because their system is vulnerable. The general idea is that the use of marijuana may help such people to learn that it's safe to take a bus again."
Ganon-Elazar's study was conducted in three parts.
"First we exposed a group of rats to a traumatic event, which is a very mild electrical shock administered in a dark room," she explained. "Rats don't like light, and they usually stay in dark rooms, but the shock caused the rats to avoid entering the dark room. After a while, though, the rats enter the dark room, don't get shocked, and learn that the dark room is no longer dangerous."
"We took some of the rats, though, and exposed them to an additional stress by putting them on a high platform in a totally different room," Ganon-Elazar said. "Rats have a fear of heights and we found that the rats who were exposed to this extra stress had a much harder time learning that the dark room is safe. These rats have a learning deficiency which causes them to avoid entering the dark room."
"Then we took a third group of rats, which were exposed to both the trauma of the shock and the additional stress of being put on a high platform, and gave them a shot of a synthetic drug that mimics the activity of the active materials inside marijuana," Ganon-Elazar explains. "Even though they were exposed to additional stress, this third group returned to the dark room after a few days just like the first group that wasn't exposed to additional stress."
"From this we concluded that the use of synthetic marijuana can actually reverse the impairing effect that exposure to stress causes on our ability to learn that something is safe."
Post traumatic stress disorder is relatively common in Israel, in particular among victims of terror attacks, Holocaust survivors and veterans of Israeli wars.
The Israeli government has not approved the use of marijuana by those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, awaiting the results of a clinical trial.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Media Line
Author: Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Contact: The Media Line
Copyright: 2009 The Media Line
Website: Israeli Study Finds Pot May Help Terror Victims
