A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity – a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease.
New research has shown physical changes to exist in specific brain areas implicated in schizophrenia following the use of cannabis during adolescence. The research has shown how cannabis use during adolescence can interact with a gene, called the COMT gene, to cause physical changes in the brain.
Scientists have found clinical evidence that the drug gabapentin, currently on the market to treat neuropathic pain and epilepsy, helps people to quit smoking marijuana (cannabis). Unlike traditional addiction treatments, gabapentin targets stress systems in the brain that are activated by drug withdrawal.
Half of young adult tobacco smokers also have smoked marijuana in the last 30 days, according to a recent Facebook-based survey, indicating a greater prevalence of marijuana and tobacco co-use among smokers age 18-25 than previously reported.
Researchers have found children’s academic achievement test scores not affected by intrauterine exposure to cocaine, tobacco or marijuana. However, alcohol exposure in children who had no evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome did lead to lower scores in math reasoning and spelling even after controlling for other intrauterine substance exposures and contextual factors.