Pot Impairs Learning in Adolescent Rats: Study |
Posted by CN Staff on June 06, 2006 at 15:48:59 PT For Immediate Release Source: Health Central USA -- The main active ingredient in marijuana leads to short-term impairment of learning in adolescent rats, but doesn't seem to affect adults similarly, Duke University Medical Center researchers report. Their study compared the effects of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on the memory ability of adolescent and adult rats to see if the animals, and perhaps humans, are more sensitive to THC at certain stages. Researchers found that chronic exposure to THC during adolescence may not lead to long-term damage persisting into adulthood, but said the finding should be interpreted cautiously, since other studies have suggested the damage may be longer-lasting. The study tested the effects of THC exposure on memory and learning by dosing rats with varying amounts, training them to navigate a "water maze," and then measuring how well the rats remembered how to get to a stationary platform in the water. After the THC had cleared the rats' systems and the adolescents had reached full maturity, the researchers tested how well they performed in the water maze. The chronic exposure appeared to have no effect on the rats' later learning abilities, the study found. The findings appear in the March 2006 issue of the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, which is expected to be published June 8. "There are plenty of good reasons for adolescents to not smoke pot," said H. Scott Swartzwelder, a professor of psychiatry at Duke and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the senior author on the study. "The teen years require a lot of learning and preparation for adulthood." Source: Health Central (US Web) CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #9 posted by mai_bong_city on June 07, 2006 at 07:17:20 PT |
my browser is a bitch so i can't get the reuter's link, i can only get this yahoo one...i had seen this a few months ago too, that the 'highest' new group of anti-psychotic users was elementary schoolchildren....what are they doing?????? i have been on a few of these drugs and for the life of me - for the life of those children, argghh.....madness, madness.
they have no idea what effect this has - a lifetime of anti-psychotics, prescribed off-label.....it ain't right. i just ain't. it makes me very sad.
the thing about cannabis and memory, it's been said the israeli army was treating soldiers with ptsd with it because it somehow was a selective memory blocker...the bad and useless fly off, and only the good and helpful ones remain at the front.
it's just - what planet is this, that will chemicalize our toddlers for life and won't allow a plant that heals so many sick :( [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #8 posted by Christen-Mitchell on June 07, 2006 at 06:49:51 PT:
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It's a sad day in little rat kingdom. Actually it's somwhat of a positive study. Empirically it demonstrates no harmful effects for adult use. How many guvmint recognized studies are favorable in any way whatsoever. Few would openly approve use by youth, so this is a backdoor positive. The Iran incentive package seems to be possible. It has been hinted that along with reactor help, nuclear fuel and airplane parts that one of the Bush twins are part of the deal. Also it is little known, but the same crack Boulder Detectives from the Ramsey case have obviously been helping with the Natalee Holloway disapearance. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #7 posted by potpal on June 07, 2006 at 04:07:26 PT |
Now give them another million dollars to study what foods the rats like to munch on afterwards. What a bunch of crap. Rather selective with their cannabis news, eh? Believe some really remarkable discoveries have recently been made re: cannabis. Where they be? [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #6 posted by whig on June 06, 2006 at 21:07:05 PT |
I do think cannabis has important effects on the memory. It makes you remember things that you had forgotten, it lets you know that the important things are still there. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #5 posted by whig on June 06, 2006 at 21:02:52 PT |
"Why don't they just do human tests if they're curious? They already know there would be no risk to the humans' health." So well said, Max. The question of the acute effects of cannabis cannot be adequately studied while cannabis remains illegal. There are some very interesting things that could be learned if we could just openly enroll volunteers and say, we're going to try to find out how your memory is working and you'll get some free pot and a few bucks for your time. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on June 06, 2006 at 19:58:28 PT |
It lets us stop all that worrying we do about how well rats will remember how to get to their water dish after they recover from being stoned. Cause hey, that's a big issue, dontcha know. This is an old game they're playing. We've all known for decades that animal studies with drugs can't tell us much of anything that can trasnfer to human physiology. Acute toxicity, yes, and things like that, but nothing subtle (like memory tests for pete's sake!). Rats are rats and humans are human. Why don't they just do human tests if they're curious? They already know there would be no risk to the humans' health. Ah yes, but those tests would probably return lots of bad news for prohibitionists (but good news for humanity), so they don't get approved. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #3 posted by FoM on June 06, 2006 at 17:39:24 PT |
PET Imaging of Cerebral Cannabinoid CB1 Receptors with [11C]JHU75528 *** Medical Research News Published: Tuesday, 6-Jun-2006 A team of Johns Hopkins researchers developed a new radiotracer - a radioactive substance that can be traced in the body - to visualize and quantify the brain's cannabinoid receptors by positron emission tomography (PET), opening a door to the development of new medications to treat drug dependence, obesity, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Tourette syndrome. Discovery of the [11C]JHU75528 radioligand, a radioactive biochemical substance that is used to study the receptor systems of the brain, "opens an avenue for noninvasive study of central cannabinoid (CB1) receptors in the human and animal brain," explained Andrew Horti, assistant professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Md. He explained that there is evidence that CB1 receptors play an essential role in many disorders including schizophrenia, depression and motor function disorders. "Quantitative imaging of the central CB1 using PET could provide a great opportunity for the development of cannabinergic medications and for studying the role of CB1 in these disorders," added the co-author of "PET Imaging of Cerebral Cannabinoid CB1 Receptors with [11C]JHU75528." Cannabinoid receptors are proteins on the surface of brain cells; they are most dense in brain regions involved with thinking and memory, attention and control of movement. The effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana, are due to its binding to specific cannabinoid receptors located on the surface of brain cells. "Blocking CB1 receptors presents the possibility of developing new, emerging medications for treatment of obesity and drug dependence including alcoholism, tobacco and marijuana smoking," said Horti. The usefulness of in vivo (in the body) radioligands for studying cerebral receptors by PET depends on the image quality, and a good PET radiotracer must display a high level of specific receptor binding and low non-specific binding (binding with other proteins, cell membranes, etc.), said Horti. "If the non-specific binding is too high and specific binding is too low, the PET images become too 'noisy' for quantitative measurements," he noted. "We developed a PET radiotracer with a unique combination of good CB1 binding affinity and relatively low non-specific binding in mice and baboon brains," he added. "Previously developed PET radioligands for imaging of CB1 receptors were not suitable for quantitative imaging due to the high level of image 'noise,'" he added. "Even though PET methodology was developed 30 years ago, its application for studying cerebral receptors is limited due to the lack of suitable radioligands," said Horti. "Development of [11C]JHU75528 will allow noninvasive research of CB1 receptor," he added, indicating that Johns Hopkins researchers need to complete various safety studies and obtain Food and Drug Administration approval before [11C]JHU75528 can be used for PET imaging in people. "This discovery would not have been possible without involvement of many highly qualified researchers, including the teams of Robert Dannals and Dean Wong and support of Richard Wahl, director of the nuclear medicine department," said Horti. 2006 News-Medical.Net http://www.snm.org http://www.news-medical.net/?id=18312 [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #2 posted by MikeEEEEE on June 06, 2006 at 16:49:52 PT |
The minds of teenagers are wired differently than adults. They didn't need to waste money on a study. Alcohol has worst affects on everybody, especially on the prohibitionist rats. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on June 06, 2006 at 16:09:54 PT |
I wonder how it feels to know that you're focusing your life's energy and decades of studying & training for the purpose of playing with stoned rats in a water maze? We have have reached the final stages of the Empire. This is surely a sign that the end is near. Very Roman-esque. Laughing and getting rats high while we overpopulate & slowly destroy the earth. As our population eats itself to death. Like the Romans laying around the Vomitorium while the Goths sharpened their blades out in the wilderness. The barbarians are at the gate! [ Post Comment ] |
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