Cannabis May Treat Alcohol Withdrawal, Says New St
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A new study published by the Journal of Neuroscience has found that heavy alcohol consumption leads to a decrease in the availability of our cannabinoid receptors, making cannabinoid receptor noalcoholactivation a potential treatment for the negative impact of alcohol withdrawal and abstinence.
For the study, “20 healthy social drinkers underwent [18F]MK-9470-positron emission tomography (PET) at baseline and after intravenous ethanol administration (ALC ACU). Moreover, 26 alcoholic patients underwent sequential CB1R PET after chronic heavy drinking (ALC CHR) and after 1 month of abstinence (ALC ABST). Seventeen healthy subjects served as controls.”
In following this method, researchers found that; “whereas the acute alcohol effect is an increase in CB1R availability, chronic heavy drinking leads to reduced CB1R [type 1 cannabinoid receptor] availability that is not reversible after 1 month of abstinence. Longer follow-up is required to differentiate whether this is a compensatory effect of repeated endocannabinoid overstimulation or an enduring trait-like feature.”
They conclude that; “An enhanced CB1R signaling [which can be done through cannabis consumption] may offer a new therapeutic direction for treatment of the negative affective state produced by alcohol withdrawal and abstinence, which is critical for the maintenance of alcohol addiction.”
A separate study published online by the National Institute of Health has found that; “Substituting cannabis for alcohol may reduce drinking and related problems among alcohol-dependent individuals.”
The study can be found by clicking here ~
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24553924