01 Oct Unique Treatment Potential Of Cannabidiol

“In summary, the results provide proof of principle supporting potential of CBD for relapse prevention along two dimensions : beneficial actions across several vulnerability states, and long-lasting effects with only brief treatment. To further substantiate this putative large-spectrum treatment potential it will be essential to extend the characterization of CBD’s “therapeutic” profile in the future. This includes understanding of the post-treatment persistence of CBD’s anti-anxiety effects and its efficacy to reduce anxiety in subjects with a history of more excessive, long-term drug use than modeled here. It will be important also to determine the treatment frequency, duration, and doses at which CBD is most efficacious in exerting both its acute and post-treatment “therapeutic” actions.

While these issues and the mechanistic basis of CBD’s effects require clarification in the future, the results have significant implications concerning CBD’s potential in relapse prevention. Drug addicts enter relapse vulnerability states for multiple reasons. Therefore, effects such as these observed with CBD that concurrently ameliorate several of these are likely to be more effective in preventing relapse than treatments targeting only a single state. As well, the sustained post-treatment attenuation of drug seeking implies that CBD exerts enduring rather than transient ameliorative effects.

Identification of the underlying mechanisms may lead to treatments with long-term benefits as well as improved understanding of neuroplasticity responsible for chronic susceptibility to relapse. Insight into the mechanisms by which CBD exerts its multiple beneficial effects in future research may advance and open new vistas for the pharmacotherapeutic prevention of relapse to drug use. Finally, the results inform the present medical marijuana debate by confirming that non-psychoactive, non-addictive constituents of Cannabis sativa such as CBD may be highly effective and readily amenable for development as therapeutics. CBD has found application for the treatment of epilepsy and neuropathic symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis. CBD also has long received attention for therapeutic potential in the treatment of numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders. Our findings extend understanding of CBD’s therapeutic profile to potential medical benefit for relapse prevention in substance use disorders.”

 

Source: Neuropsychopharmacology : Unique treatment potential of Cannabidiol for the prevention of relapse to drug use: pre-clinical proof of principle, 2018 Sep; 43(10): 2036–2045.Published online 2018 Mar 22. doi:  10.1038/s41386-018-0050-8