30/04/2007 16:00:00
UK: Doctors say new findings on =?windows-1252?Q?marijuana=92s_?=
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LONDON (AP) — New findings on marijuana’s damaging effect on the brain
show the drug triggers temporary psychotic symptoms in some people,
including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors say.
British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small
doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo.
One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even
small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced
temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and
paranoid delusions, doctors said.
The results, to be presented at an international mental health
conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical
evidence of the drug’s damaging influence on the human brain.
“We’ve long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have
never before had scans to show how the mechanism works,” said Dr. Philip
McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King’s College, London.
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12505
Author:
News Examiner-Enterprise via UKCIA
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