Cannabis, maybe, for attention problems

How the body’s own cannabinoids may influence the symptoms and treatment of ADHD

2024-11-25

(Press-News.org) Cannabis — whether marijuana itself or various products containing cannabinoids and/or THC, the main psychoactive compound in weed – have been touted as panaceas for everything from anxiety and sleep problems to epilepsy and cancer pain.

Nursing researcher Jennie Ryan, PhD, at Thomas Jefferson University, studies the effects of cannabis on symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Current medical guidelines for ADHD include medications such as Adderall and cognitive behavioral therapy. As with most treatments, the benefits can be accompanied by downsides. “Parents are interested in cannabidiol, which does not contain THC,” Dr. Ryan says. “But we don’t have the science yet to back recommendations.”

In a recent review paper, Dr. Ryan and her colleagues plumbed the scientific literature to compile evidence, which is generally suggestive of interactions between cannabis and ADHD. The researchers focused on how cannabis use affects ADHD symptoms. Furthermore, the human body produces its own cannabinoids – the endocannabinoid system – which led the researchers to wonder how might this endogenous system influence ADHD? They scrutinized clinical and preclinical findings, which together suggest that cannabis affects the endocannabinoid system in a variety of ways to affect attention, hyperactivity and anxiety.

“A relationship is there,” Dr. Ryan says. However, the picture is complicated by the sheer variety of cannabis products used, the many types of endocannabinoids and their biological pathways and the variability of ADHD presentation in people. Teasing all these factors apart, she says, “is super complicated.” In addition, cannabis researchers are hobbled by legal restrictions around marijuana.

Co-author Brooke Worster, MD, who specializes in pain management and palliative care, says she suspected the published evidence would be sparse. When that was indeed what they found, “I wasn’t super surprised,” she says. “Still, it is shocking how many holes there are. We have a lot of work ahead.”

Drs. Ryan and Worster plan to publish results from a second survey of cannabis use in adults with ADHD.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Building a better path to recovery for OUD

2024-11-25

A new study led by Thomas Jefferson University researchers highlights critical healthcare gaps that hinder long-term recovery for people living with opioid use disorders (OUD) in Philadelphia. The researchers conducted 13 focus groups with 70 participants accessing various types of OUD treatment. Participants reported several challenges, such as lengthy and restrictive assessment processes, inadequate operating hours and lack of sufficient withdrawal management. Participants also reported broader socio-economic needs, such as housing and income support, as barriers to their recovery. Meghan Reed, PhD, MPH, senior ...

How climate change threatens this iconic Florida bird

2024-11-25

ITHACA, N.Y. – Because of warmer winters, Florida scrub-jays are now nesting one week earlier than they did in 1981. But these early birds are not always getting the worm. A new analysis of data from a long-term study, published in Ornithological Advances, finds that warmer winters driven by climate change reduced the number of offspring raised annually by the federally threatened Florida scrub-jay by 25% since 1981. Warmer temperatures, the scientists hypothesize, make jay nests susceptible to predation by snakes for a longer period of the Florida ...

Study reveals new factor involved in controlling calorie expenditure

2024-11-25

An international team of researchers has discovered a new component of the peripheral nervous system that acts by increasing energy metabolism in the body. The finding paves the way for the development of simpler and cheaper drugs to control obesity and weight gain, regardless of the amount of food ingested. In an article published in the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and the Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center (OCRC) – funded by FAPESP and based at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil – describe where and how this component ...

Managing forests with smart technologies

2024-11-25

Deforestation has remained a significant issue globally, with primary forests contributing to 16 per cent of the total tree cover loss in the last two decades, driven by climate change and intensive human activity. This threatens natural resources, biodiversity, and people’s quality of life. To protect forests, Lithuanian scientists, in collaboration with Swedish experts, have developed Forest 4.0, an intelligent forest data processing model integrating blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The system ...

Clinical trial finds that adding the chemotherapy pill temozolomide to radiation therapy improves survival in adult patients with a slow-growing type of brain tumor

2024-11-25

Both radiation and temozolomide, a generic chemotherapy treatment in pill form, have meaningful single-modality anti-tumor activity against slow-growing, low-grade gliomas. The randomized phase 3 trial E3F05 by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) tested whether combined therapy using temozolomide alongside radiation therapy is more effective than radiation therapy alone in these patients. The trial followed 172 patients for more than 10 years, and its results have an immediate clinical impact by providing the first evidence from a randomized phase 3 trial that temozolomide improves long-term survival for these patients. “We found that the 10-year ...

H.E.S.S. collaboration detects the most energetic cosmic-ray electrons and positrons ever observed

2024-11-25

The Universe teems with extreme environments, ranging from the very coldest temperatures to the highest energy sources possible. As a consequence, extreme objects such as supernova remnants, pulsars and active galactic nuclei are capable of emitting charged particles and gamma rays with incredibly high energies, so high that they exceed the energy produced by the nuclear fusion in stars by several orders of magnitude. The gamma rays detected on Earth tell us a great deal about these sources, since they travel through space undisturbed. However, in the case of charged particles, ...

Novel supernova observations grant astronomers a peek into the cosmic past

2024-11-25

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An international team of researchers has made new observations of an unusual supernova, finding the most metal-poor stellar explosion ever observed. This rare supernova, called 2023ufx, originated from the core collapse of a red supergiant star, exploded on the outskirts of a nearby dwarf galaxy. Results of the study showed that observations of both this supernova and the galaxy it was discovered in are of low metallicity, meaning they lack an abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium. Since the metals produced within supernovae ...

Association of severe maternal morbidity with subsequent birth

2024-11-25

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that women who experience severe maternal morbidity in their first birth are less likely to have a subsequent birth. Adequate reproductive counseling and enhancing antenatal care are crucial for women with a history of severe maternal morbidity. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Eleni Tsamantioti, MD, MMedSc, email eleni.tsamantioti@ki.se. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.20957) Editor’s ...

Herodotus' theory on Armenian origins debunked by first whole-genome study

2024-11-25

Armenians, a population in Western Asia historically inhabiting the Armenian highlands, were long believed to be descendants of Phrygian settlers from the Balkans. This theory originated largely from the accounts of the Greek historian Herodotus, who observed that Armenians were armed in Phrygian fashion when serving in the Persian army. Linguists further supported this theory, suggesting that the Armenian language shares ties with the Thraco-Phrygian subgroup of Indo-European languages. But the first whole-genome study is challenging this long-held belief, revealing no significant genetic link between ...

Women who suffer pregnancy complications have fewer children

2024-11-25

Women who suffer severe complications during their first pregnancy or delivery are less inclined to have more babies, a study published in JAMA by researchers at Karolinska Institutet reports. Given the recent steady decline in birth rate in Sweden, the researchers propose monitoring in antenatal care to address the problem. “The clinical monitoring of these women is essential, and they need individualised advice on possible future pregnancies,” says the study’s first author Eleni Tsamantioti, doctoral student at the Department of Medicine in Solna, Karolinska Institutet. Birth rates and fertility have both been in steady decline ...

Cannabis, maybe, for attention problems

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: