Entries by Sarah Russo

Cannabis in Parkinson’s Disease: Hype or help?

Authors: Tina Mainka, Jan Stork, Ute Hidding, Carsten Buhmann
Fortschritte der Neurologie · Psychiatrie, February 2018

Cannabis buds and extracts as well as synthetic cannabinoids have been available on prescription to patients with severe diseases since March 2017, with the costs covered by health insurance companies.The prescription of medical marihuana is not restricted to specific symptoms…

Cannabis use during pregnancy: Pharmacokinetics and effects on child development.

Authors: Kimberly S.Grant, Rebekah Petroff, Nina Isoherranen, Nephi Stella, Thomas M. Burbacher
Pharmacology & Therapeutics, February 2018

The broad-based legalization of cannabis use has created a strong need to understand its impact on human health and behavior. The risks that may be associated with cannabis use, particularly for sensitive subgroups such as pregnant women, are difficult to define because of a p…

Marijuana Use Associations with Pulmonary Symptoms and Function in Tobacco Smokers Enrolled in the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS).

Authors: Madeline A. Morris, Sean R. Jacobson, Gregory L. Kinney, Donald P. Tashkin, et al
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, 24 January 2018

Background: Marijuana is often smoked via a filterless cigarette and contains similar chemical makeup as smoked tobacco. There are few publications describing usage patterns and respiratory risks in older adults or in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Me…

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A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Medical Cannabis for Psychiatric, Movement and Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Authors: Keane Lim, Yuen Mei See, and Jimmy Lee
Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience, 30 November 2017

The discovery of endocannabinoid’s role within the central nervous system and its potential therapeutic benefits have brought forth rising interest in the use of cannabis for medical purposes. The present review aimed to synthesize and evaluate the available evidences on the e…

Medical Cannabis in Parkinson Disease: Real-Life Patients’ Experience.

Authors: Yacov Balash, Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, Amos Korczyn, Herzel Shabtai, Judith Knaani, et al
Clinical Neuropharmacology, November/December 2017

BACKGROUND: The use of medical cannabis (MC) is controversial. Support for its benefits is based on small clinical series. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to report the results of a standardized interview study that retrospectively assessed the effects of MC on symptoms o…

Characterization of endocannabinoids and related acylethanolamides in the synovial fluid of dogs with osteoarthritis: a pilot study.

Authors: Carmela Valastro, Debora Campanile, Mariarosaria Marinaro, Delia Franchini, Fabiana Piscitelli, Roberta Verde, Vincenzo Di Marzo, Antonio Di Bello
BMC Veterinary Research, 6 November 2017

BACKGROUND: Cannabis-based drugs have been shown to be effective in inflammatory diseases. A number of endocannabinoids including N- arachidonoylethanolamide (anandamide, AEA) and 2-arachidonyl glycerol (2-AG) with activity at the cannabinoid receptors (CBR) CBR1 and CBR2, hav…

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Oral administration of cannabis with lipids leads to high levels of cannabinoids in the intestinal lymphatic system and prominent immunomodulation.

Authors: Atheer Zgair, Jong Bong Lee, Jonathan C. M. Wong, Dhiaa A. Taha, Jehan Aram, et al
Scientific Reports, 6 November 2017

Cannabidiol (CBD) and ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have well documented immunomodulatory effects in vitro, but not following oral administration in humans. Here we show that oral co-administration of cannabinoids with lipids can substantially increase their intestinal lympha…

Masturbation to Orgasm Stimulates the Release of the Endocannabinoid 2-Arachidonoylglycerol in Humans.

Authors: Johannes Fuss, Laura Bindila, Klaus Wiedemann, Matthias K. Auer, Peer Briken, Sarah V. Biedermann
Journal of Sexual Medicine, November 2017

BACKGROUND: Endocannabinoids are critical for rewarding behaviors such as eating, physical exercise, and social interaction. The role of endocannabinoids in mammalian sexual behavior has been suggested because of the influence of cannabinoid receptor agonists and antagonists o…

Physicians-in-training are not prepared to prescribe medical marijuana.

Authors: Anastasia B. Evanoff, Tiffany Quan, Carolyn Dufault, Michael Awad, Laura Jean Bierut
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1 November 2017

BACKGROUND: While medical marijuana use is legal in more than half of U.S. states, evidence is limited about the preparation of physicians-in-training to prescribe medical marijuana. We asked whether current medical school and graduate medical educational training prepare phys…

Standardized Cannabis sativa extract attenuates tau and stathmin gene expression in the melanoma cell line.

Authors: Golnaz Vaseghi, Mohamad Javad Taki, Shaghayegh Haghjooy Javanmard
Iranian journal of basic medical sciences, October 2017

OBJECTIVES: Metastasis is the main cause of death in patients with melanoma. Cannabis-based medicines are effective adjunctive drugs in cancer patients. Tau and Stathmin proteins are the key proteins in cancer metastasis. Here we have investigated the effect of a standardized…

Endocannabinoid system in neurodegenerative disorders.

Authors: Balapal S. Basavarajappa, Madhu Shivakumar, Vikram Joshi, Shivakumar Subbanna
Journal of Neurochemistry, September 2017

Most neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) are characterized by cognitive impairment and other neurological defects. The definite cause of and pathways underlying the progression of these NDDs are not well-defined. Several mechanisms have been proposed to contribute to the develo…