"CBD Improves Blood Flow to Brain’s Hippocampus"

Cannabidiol (CBD) increases cerebral blood flow to areas of the brain associated with memory processing, specifically the hippocampus. The findings identify a potential mechanism for the use of CBD to treat disorders associated with altered memory processing, including Alzheimer’s disease, PTSD, and schizophrenia.

A single dose of cannabidiol (CBD) helped increase blood flow to the hippocampus, an important area of the brain associated with memory and emotion, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

Researchers say the findings could be an important discovery for conditions which affect memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and could help better target therapies.

In the study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers set out to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow in different regions on the brain involved in memory processing.

Lead author, Dr Michael Bloomfield (UCL Psychiatry) said: “Cannabidiol is one of the main constituents of cannabis and is gaining interest for its therapeutic potential.

"Using CBD to Treat the Symptoms of Alzheimer’s & Other Forms of Dementia"

Worldwide, 50 million people are living with Alzheimer's and other dementias.

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia. 

Dementia its an overall term that describes a group of symptoms.

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia.

The dementia-related conditions that can be helped by CBD include: Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular Dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia and Huntington’s disease.

According to researchers at California’s Salk Institute, their 2017 study has found evidence that cannabinoids such as CBD could help remove dementia from, and increase connections between, brain cells. Those results were validated by other laboratories. 

There are three ways CBD can work to improve health outcomes for persons with dementia: by reducing inflammation, by reducing oxygen buildup, and by working as a brain stimulant and neuroprotectant. From a user’s perspective, CBD may reduce stress and anxiety in the individual with dementia as well as reduce the decline of memory and other brain functions.

"Safety and efficacy of cannabidiol in children and adults with treatment resistant Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome"

Since 2014, patients with severe treatment-resistant epilepsies (TREs) have been receiving add-on cannabidiol (CBD) in an ongoing, expanded access program (EAP), which closely reflects clinical practice.

Researchers conducted an interim analysis of long-term efficacy and tolerability in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome (DS) who received CBD treatment through December 2016.

The Study...

Children and adults with LGS/DS taking stable doses of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) at baseline were included from 25 EAP sites across the United States.

During the 4-week baseline period, parents/caregivers kept diaries of all countable seizure types. Patients received a pharmaceutical formulation of highly purified CBD in oral solution at 2-10 mg/kg/day, titrated until tolerability limit or a maximum dose of 25-50 mg/kg/day.

"CBD and Epilepsy"

Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder, it is estimated that ∼50 million people are affected worldwide. 

About one third of those patients are drug resistant, defined as failure to stop all seizures despite adequate trials of at least 2 appropriate medications.

CBD (cannabidiol) has been shown to be an effective treatment for epilepsy, particularly in reducing the frequency and severity of seizures in people with certain types of epilepsy.

In 2018, the FDA approved a CBD-based medication called Epidiolex for the treatment of two rare forms of childhood epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. Clinical trials showed that Epidiolex significantly reduced the number of seizures in patients with these conditions.

CBD works by interacting with the body's endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in regulating various bodily functions, including mood, pain, and sleep. It is thought that CBD may help to reduce seizures by interacting with certain receptors in the brain and nervous system.

There has been an enormous interest in developing antiepileptic drugs with novel mechanisms of action. This review discusses the evidence supporting the anticonvulsant properties of cannabis in humans, focusing on cannabidiol.

"CBD could help people quit cannabis bad habit"

A benchmark clinical trial published on 28/07/2020 shows that cannabidiol (CBD) could be a safe and effective treatment for problematic cannabis use. 

Results from the first-ever randomised clinical trial of CBD for cannabis use disorder suggests that prescribed doses of the non-intoxicating constituent part of the cannabis plant could help people kick the habit.

In the MRC-funded trial, published in the Lancet Psychiatry, researchers administered doses of CBD or placebo to 82 volunteers who were motivated to quit using cannabis but had previously failed to do so. They measured the effects of the drug on levels of cannabis use both during a four-week treatment period and up to six months follow-up.

As this was the first clinical trial to assess CBD for reducing cannabis use, they tested three different doses of CBD in an adaptive design to find out which doses might be most effective.

• In the first stage of the trial, 48 volunteers received either placebo or CBD at doses of 200mg, 400mg or 800mg. The researchers found that the lowest dose of 200mg CBD was ineffective and so they dropped it from the trial.
• In the second stage of the trial, the researchers recruited an additional 34 volunteers to receive either placebo, 400mg or 800mg CBD. At the end of the trial, they found consistent evidence that CBD at 400mg or 800mg was more effective than placebo at reducing cannabis use.