"Cannabidiol as effective as antipsychotic meds with fewer side effects".

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. 

It can cause psychotic episodes, and treatment is usually lifelong and involves antipsychotic medications with toxic side effects.

In 2012, researchers published a study in Translational Psychiatry showing that a CBD isolate can treat schizophrenia as effectively as antipsychotic pharmaceuticals — and with far fewer side effects.

In this study, researchers led by Markus Leweke, MD, of the University of Cologne in Germany recruited 39 people with schizophrenia who were hospitalized for a psychotic episode.

"Alcohol, Not Cannabis, Associated with Violent Behaviors in Psychotic Patients"

The consumption of alcohol, but not cannabis, is associated with an increased likelihood of impulsiveness and violent behavior among subjects with schizophrenic spectrum disorders, according to data published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

The link between substances of abuse, impulsivity, and violence in psychotic patients remains unclear but a team of Canadian and Italian investigators assessed the relationship between the use of alcohol and cannabis on psychotic, impulsive, and violent behavior in a cohort of subjects diagnosed with either schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders

The term "psychotic disorder" refers to a person's thought dysfunction and is often described as "the patient's loss of contact with reality."

This study aims at unraveling whether cannabis use disorder is associated with violent and/or psychotic behavior in patients who where hospitalized in a high-security hospital.

Study Confirms CBD May Have Antipsychotic Effect in High-Risk Individuals

Cannabis extract helps reset brain function in psychosis. In a 2018
Researcher from King’s College London found that a single dose of the cannabis extract cannabidiol can help reduce brain function abnormalities seen in people with psychosis. 

Results from a new MRC-funded trial, published in JAMA Psychiatry, provide the first evidence of how cannabidiol acts in the brain to reduce psychotic symptoms.

Cannabidiol, also referred to as CBD, is a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis. A purified form of cannabidiol has recently been licensed in the USA as a treatment for rare childhood epilepsies, and a 2017 King’s College London trial has demonstrated cannabidiol has anti-psychotic properties. However, exactly how cannabidiol may work in the brain to alleviate psychosis has remained a mystery.

“The mainstay of current treatment for people with psychosis are drugs that were first discovered in the 1950s and unfortunately do not work for everyone,” says Dr. Sagnik Bhattacharyya, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). “Our results have started unravelling the brain mechanisms of a new drug that works in a completely different way to traditional anti-psychotics.”