Substance Abuse and Mental Health Treatment
(Cannabidiol's (CBD's) Potential in Substance Abuse Treatment) "The current study has revealed unique properties of the phytocannabinoid CBD and underscores the contrasting characteristics of the main constituents of cannabis in relation to addiction vulnerability. Compared with the documented effects of THC to enhance heroin self-administration (Solinas et al., 2004; Ellgren et al., 2007), the present data demonstrated that CBD specifically inhibited reinstatement of cue-induced heroin seeking. The specificity of CBD to cue-induced reinstatement was also emphasized by the observation that the compound still inhibited drug relapse behavior in animals extinguished to the environmental context (self-administration chamber) previously associated with heroin. The results are striking given the very selective and protracted effects of CBD."
"Overall, the observations of this study suggest the potential for CBD as a treatment strategy given its specificity to attenuate cue-induced drug-seeking behavior, preferential impact on mesolimbic neuronal populations, and enduring neural actions. Clearly, greater attention needs be given to the potential role of CBD in the treatment of addiction and other mental health disorders."
Ren, Yanhua; Whittard, John; Higuera-Matas, Alejandro; Morris, Claudia V.; and Yasmin L. Hurd, "Cannabidiol, a Nonpsychotropic Component of Cannabis, Inhibits Cue-Induced Heroin Seeking and Normalizes Discrete Mesolimbic Neuronal Disturbances," The Journal of Neuroscience (Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, November 25, 2009), Vol. 29, No. 47, pp. 14767 and 14768.
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/…
