Press
Boston, MA–(ENEWSPF)–June 23, 2016. Cannabis inhalation is associated
with the alleviation of clinical symptoms in patients with bipolar
disorder (BPD), according to clinical findings published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
Investigators at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Boston
assessed the effects of cannabis inhalation on mood and
neuropsychological performance in patients with BPD over a period of
several weeks.
Researchers reported that bipolar patients experienced decreased
levels of various clinical symptoms – including depression, mania,
anger, and anxiety – after inhaling cannabis. Although marijuana-using
subjects did perform more poorly on certain cognitive tests compared to
healthy controls, these subjects performed no differently than did
comparable BPD patients with no history of cannabis use.
Authors concluded: “[D]irect analyses of the marijuana-smoking BPD
patients before and after marijuana use revealed notable symptom
alleviation within four hours of smoking, [such as] ….
significantly
lower scores of anger, tension, [and] depression, as well as higher
levels of vigor. …
With regard to cognitive performance, marijuana
smokers and BPD patients performed more poorly than healthy controls
overall.
However, within the BPD patients, impairment was observed
regardless of marijuana use status. … Taken together, study findings
suggest that marijuana use may result in at least short-term mood term
stabilization for a subset of BPD patients, and further, that marijuana
use does not have an additive, negative impact on cognitive performance
in BPD patients.”
The study is the first clinical trial to examine the effects of cannabis on both mood and cognitive performance in BPD patients.
Bipolar disorder is estimated to affect some 5.7 million American adults.
Full text of the study, “A pilot investigation of the impact of
bipolar disorder and marijuana use on cognitive function and mood,”
appears online in PLoS ONE.
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