CBD Research - How CBD Works for Schizophrenia and Psychosis
CBD FOR PSYCHOSIS AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
In full disclosure, unlike some of the other articles, this one hits close to home.
An extended family member is schizophrenic and I've seen the suffering first hand.
The person's suffering might pale to the family's suffering.
There have been rounds of medications used but only for short periods of time and with terrible side effects.
I keep an eye on studies, research, and any insights into how these issues might one day be eliminated for good.
Good riddance!
In one of my many science and medical update emails, something caught my eye.
A study on inflammation in the brain and reduction of symptoms from schizophrenia.
It was primarily looking at sodium bicarbonate but very interesting.
Then the big one came across the wire shortly after (seem to be speeding up!)
A study on CBD and psychosis that was caused me to pause.
Pretty interesting results!
We'll get into that below but suffice it to say...
CBD might offer some real relief to people fighting psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, and a host of other mental health issues.
We'll get into the research and we'll look at what it's telling us about the system in question.
Very exciting (for a change).
God bless NAMI but let's hope we can free up their nightly meetings before too long!
If you want to jump right to the list of CBD brands screened for safety, ranked by value here:
Otherwise, feel free to jump to any topic here:
- A quick intro at psychosis and schizophrenia
- How the endocannabinoid system interacts with the brain
- Is CBD good for schizophrenia?
- What research is showing for CBD and psychosis and schizophrenia
- What about the reports on THC and schizophrenia
- Does CBD protect against THC psychotic effects?
- Can CBD cause or trigger psychosis?
- What are the side effects of CBD
- CBD dosage for psychosis
- Best CBD for psychosis and schizophrenia
Lots to cover.
We'll skip all the statistics that most websites throw out.
If you're researching this, you know the statistic of 1 is all that matters.
Let's get to it.
A Quick Intro At Psychosis And Schizophrenia
We're finally getting some intriguing clues as to what is going on in the brain with schizophrenia and psychosis.
Not held to be simply a question of neurotransmitter being out of balance, clearly more is as work.
- There are genetic factors (COMT, AKT1)
- There is malabsorption of important nutrients (B12, folate, zinc, magnesium, etc)
- Environmental factors – toxins, chemicals – before, during, and after birth
Now we throw in virus in-utero and during brain development.
Heck...retroviruses (viruses in our DNA, not our bodies per se) are now tied to addiction (if they occur in the genes that govern dopamine).
The mind requires so much to go right.
It's a miracle I'm writing this and you're reading it.
Much less everything else we do.
Let's focus down on the aspects that are important in terms of what we know about CBD.
There are three main schools of thought that have evolved over time:
- Schizophrenia as a result of brain area activity and connectedness
- Schizophrenia as a result of imbalances in neurotransmitters
- Schizophrenia as a result of brain inflammation
All shed some light on the underlying causes.
First, there appears to be an abnormal activity in certain parts of the brain
- Parahippocampal
- Striatal
- Mid-Brain Regions
We can actually see this activity in MRI's when psychotic behavior is becoming present.
That's a good place to start...hard evidence.
Learn about the brain area model here:
Then there's the whole delicate dance of neurotransmitters.
Dopamine and Glutamate have been implicated.
Lots of great information here including exciting results on:
The connection furthers reflects CBD's promise in regulating dopamine levels:
Together with clinical evidence showing that CBD may normalize affective and cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, CBD may represent a promising treatment for schizophrenia
There's the whole fascinating tie in with nicotine.
90% of people with schizophrenia smoke.
It's estimated that the vast majority of cigarettes are smoked by someone with a diagnosed mental illness.
This isn't to say that a smoker is mentally ill.
Just that people with mental illness smoke large amounts.
They're essentially self-medicating.
More on that here:
That doesn't mean we should take up smoking but it points to underlying imbalances in neurotransmitters and chemistry.
Finally, there's the newest kid on the block.
Brain inflammation and excitability
People with schizophrenia show high levels of inflammatory agents:
High levels of pro-inflammatory substances such as cytokines have been described in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenia patient
Remember when we talked about influenza in utero...
A large epidemiological study clearly demonstrated that severe infections and autoimmune disorders are risk factors for schizophrenia.
.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612505/
On a very interesting note...
CBD actually showed progress offsetting these results in animals models:
In conclusion, chronic CBD administration can attenuate the social interaction and cognitive deficits induced by prenatal poly I:C infection.
There's the immune system again (a common theme through this whole site and most of our modern diseases).
Anti-inflammatory have long been a first-line option with schizophrenia.
There's also the connection with histamine response and schizophrenia.
Again...we're back to the immune system.
Finally, let's introduce 1000's of toxic chemicals that we come in contact with (glyphosate shows up in umbilical cord blood and it's essentially a neurotoxin!)
Obviously, schizophrenia and psychosis are complicated but we'll focus on those elements impacted by CBD.
More importantly, we'll look at the recent study which showed interesting results.
So...how does the endocannabinoid system affect these different aspects?
Let's take a look!
How The Endocannabinoid System Interacts With The Brain
Make sure to check out How CBD Works and the Beginners Guide for more detail.
Otherwise...a quick recap.
You have a system that naturally runs through the entire body.
It's called the endocannabinoid system.
Here's a quick picture:
The CB1 receptors are primarily in the nervous system and the CB2 receptors can be found throughout the body.
The endocannabinoid system helps to balance these primary systems:
- Nervous system (neurotransmitters)
- Endocrine system (hormones)
- Immune system (attack foreign invaders...and sometimes us!)
Based on research coming out, these systems are incredibly important to the underlying causes of schizophrenia and psychosis.
Especially the intersection of the nervous system and the immune system.
We'll get into the research later but let's take a look at why there is so much buzz around CBD for schizophrenia an psychosis.
With a simple question...
Is CBD Good For Schizophrenia
This is it.
This is the study that sparked so much attention.
First...here's the study.
They're currently replicating for a much larger study and with longer durations.
Basically, they took 33 people at a high risk of psychosis.
They administered 600mg of CBD to these individuals and 19 healthy control subjects in a double-blind study.
They followed up with fMRI scans of the brain.
The results were astounding!
The MRI results showed that the irregular brain activity in the three areas we mentioned above (striatum, medial temporal cortex, and midbrain – all tied to psychosis and schizophrenia) normalized to match those of the healthy control subjects.
Furthermore, the clinicians deemed a majority of them to no longer appear at risk of psychosis afterward!
The effects of a single dose carried forward for days
.
Keep in mind that the current regime of antipsychotic medications have very significant side effects and none have shown such a pronounced effect as this study.
We need more studies...and they're coming.
But it's very exciting!!
A good summary of the test can be found here:
Also, we get information on what dose for serious issues.
Check out the Is CBD Safe page for more detail.
So...what's going on here?
As always, let's look at the research on CBD.
There are dozens of studies going on right now and we'll add those results as they come in.
What Research Is Showing For CBD And Psychosis And Schizophrenia
First, let's start with how we discovered CBD's anti-psychotic effects to begin with.
Because of its psychotic cousin, THC!
Learn about CBD versus THC here.
THC has been shown to potentially have psychotic effects.
In fact, many people use CBD to offset the negative effects of THC or the so-called "bad trip".
CBD is not psychoactive in that regard.
In fact, it's shown to be neuroprotective...
using high cannabidiol content cannabis was associated with significantly lower degrees of psychotic symptoms providing further support for the antipsychotic potential of cannabidiol.
Then there's the interplay between our endocannabinoid system and psychosis.
Let's start with some naturally occurring cannabinoids in our system.
Research points to the abundance of Anandamide present in people with schizophrenia.
Anandamide is our main naturally occurring cannabinoid.
CBD appears to bring down these levels here:
The results suggest that inhibition of anandamide deactivation may contribute to the antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol potentially representing a completely new mechanism in the treatment of schizophrenia.
The other naturally occurring endocannabinoid, 2AG impacts the disease as well:
whereas 2-arachidonoylglycerol appears to counteract psychosis-related cognitive impairments.
So...the cannabinoid system is involved.
More evidence of that here for first episodes of psychosis:
Patients with a FEP showed a decreased expression of CB2 and of both endocannabinoids synthesizing enzymes (NAPE and DAGL) in comparison to healthy controls.
FEP is just a fancy way to say first episode but that's important.
It could be the one-off psychotic event or even the beginning of schizophrenia.
What about inflammation and schizophrenia?
Lots of research coming out there and the much-overworked endocannabinoid system is not keeping up with our modern world!
First, CBD appears to help with the internal inflammation and stress associated with schizophrenia:
CBD in combination with a CB1 receptor neutral antagonist could not only augment the effects of standard APs but also target the metabolic, inflammatory and stress-related components of the schizophrenia phenotype.
Just affecting the histamine levels in the brain had a profound effect on psychotic behavior:
Already after one week, the symptoms of persons suffering from schizophrenia started to decrease and after four weeks of treatment the symptoms had decreased statistically significantly
Histamines are a key factor in our immune response.
The endocannabinoid system helps to balance this system!
That ties into CBD's effects across a range of issues from arthritis to cancer to dementia!
Learn more about histamines relationship to schizophrenia here:
CBD's anti-inflammatory effects might be it's most powerful.
That could be very important for schizophrenia:
High levels of pro-inflammatory substances such as cytokines have been described in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenia patients
Here's a great summary of CBD's potential for psychosis and schizophrenia:
The net net from that study...
Results: CBD was shown to have anxiolytic, antipsychotic, and neuroprotective properties
Many people shy away from CBD because they confuse it with THC, the psychoactive cousin in cannabis.
Let's tackle that!
What About The Reports On THC And Schizophrenia
Studies are not as kind on THC and schizophrenia.
There have been studies that implied higher THC consumption might lead to schizophrenia or reduce the threshold for an already pre-disposed person.
There's even a genetic and chemical pathway shared by both attributes.
only the genetically susceptible mice developed schizophrenia-related changes after being exposed to cannabis.
It is true that people with schizophrenia smoke marijuana at a higher rate than the general population.
Some evidence changes the cause and effect on those relations.
It says that people predisposed to schizophrenia seek out or self-medicate with marijuana.
In fact, it's long been known that higher THC levels can trigger transitory psychotic behavior.
Cannabis is associated with psychotic outcomes in numerous studies, an effect that is commonly attributed to (9)-tetrahydrocannabinol ( 9-THC)
You see this with the legalization of marijuana (high THC) in Colorado with increased hospital admissions for psychotic breaks.
Interestingly, in that same article is the effect of CBD countering psychotic effect THC's effects!
Does CBD Protect Against THC In Cannabis
Researchers found that strains of cannabis with higher levels of CBD limited these THC effects.
CBD has gained a reputation for being neuroprotective and offsetting the psychoactive effects of THC.
Where THC can create anxiety and psychotic behavior, CBD has been shown to counter these effects.
These effects of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol are significantly reduced by cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabis constituent which is devoid of the typical effects of the plant.
There has been an ongoing debate on the cause-effect relationship between THC and schizophrenia.
As there is a jump towards legalization, it's important to offset potential harm from THC consumption.
CBD might be a powerful ally in this effort as seen here:
In addition, CBD may lower the risk for developing psychosis that is related to cannabis use.
In general, CBD should be considered a valuable option to offset the negatives of THC.
What about CBD itself? Can it trigger psychosis?
Can CBD Cause Or Trigger Psychosis
CBD is not psychoactive.
This is thought to be due to its interaction with CB2 receptors in the body and not CB1 in the brain.
In fact, CBD will bind to receptors in the liver which prevents THCv from being converted into its psychoactive form.
We have found no reports of CBD causing psychoactive and the research keeps pointing to it being anti-psychotic (which is hopefully evident from the research above).
So...what are the side effects?
What Are The Side Effects Of CBD
CBD has shown a very strong safety profile.
It's even been tested up to 1500mg dosages.
You can read all about the side effects at our IS CBD safe page here.
One note...we've seen reports of stomach issues but it seems to pertain to full-spectrum CBD.
We touched on what is going on there at our Full Spectrum versus Isolate page here.
If you have histamine issues (estimated at about 30-40% of the population), isolate might be the better way to start.
You can check out the screened products by pricing here:
As for side effects, the most commonly reported ones (usually moderate) are:
- Drowsiness
- Dizziness
- Low blood pressure
- Dry mouth
CBD can interact with certain medications so it's important to check with your doctor.
Here's a good overview of studies on CBD safety here:
CBD Dosage For Psychosis
Dosage is tricky for such a critical issue.
The common dosages in the studies mentioned above are 300-600mg doses.
This is on the high side.
Generally accepted maintenance is usually around 25-30mg.
But we're talking about more serious health issues with psychosis and schizophrenia so that argues for larger dosages.
Here's a quick look:
Start lower and test how your body responds.
Make sure to talk to a doctor regarding CBD and other medications you may have.
Best CBD For Psychosis And Schizophrenia
The CBD oil tinctures are generally the most popular for this issue.
Keep in mind that our digestive system will likely eat up a good amount of the CBD.
Isolate is much cleaner especially if people have histamine issues.
We recommend starting with isolate and then try full spectrum to see how your body accepts it.
We need a higher amount of CBD so products with 1500+ would be advisable from a cost perspective.
You can see the safety screened products ranked by value here:
One note...for a much faster delivery of CBD, the vape oil might be an option.
You can use a vaporizer with this to avoid combustion.
Ideally, make sure the vape oil is clean of flavors, scents, and other additives.
Most importantly...please let us know what works (and what doesn't work) here.
Let's help each other heal!