By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Findings published recently in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggest that cannabidiol (CBD) may be helpful in treating addiction to methamphetamine, one of the world’s most-commonly abused drugs.
Authors of the study write that, while there is preliminary evidence suggesting that the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD may be effective in treating nicotine and opioid dependence, there has not been any research regarding its effects on methamphetamine addiction.
Australian researchers at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney set out to determine whether CBD might help reduce the desire to use methamphetamine and help prevent relapse after a period of abstinence.
Using thirty-two male Sprague Dawley who were initially trained to self-administer methamphetamine with the press of a lever during two-hour sessions, researchers began to introduce CBD at doses of 20, 40, and then 80 mg/kg.
The rats exhibited no changes in behavior at the 20 and 40 mg/kg strengths, but when researchers increased the dosages to 80 mg/kg, the rats became less interested in self-dosing methamphetamine and their post-extinction relapses decreased.
The authors conclude the study by stating that their research is the first to show that CBD can reduce the desire to find and consume methamphetamine. They suggest that a trial to test the cannabinoid as a novel pharmacotherapy for methamphetamine dependence could be worthwhile.
