Cannabinoids observational studies

Systematic reviews Serious and non-seri-ous adverse events associated with medical cannabinoids in 321 reports, as reported during the last 40 years, have been systematically reviewed [lO ]. Those that focused on recreational cannabis were excluded, and 23 randomized controlled studies and eight observational studies, describing 4779 adverse events, were included. Serious events were defined as those that were life-threatening or resulted in death, or required admission to a hospital or prolonged a current admission, or resulted in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or were congenital malformations. Of the adverse events, 4615 (96%) were not serious. Of the... 

Contrary to other studies, 6ACM and THC presented 100% removal in this study, but due to their low frequency of detection in raw wastewaters and then-absence in treated wastewaters (see Figs. 2 and 5). This fact also affects the overall satisfactory removal of opioids (88%) and cannabinoids (79%). However, removal of morphine, the opioid most frequently detected in wastewaters ranged between 46 and 100%, variability also observed by other authors. In the case of cannabinoids, removals reported are very diverse. The average poor removal observed for THC-COOH in the investigated WWTPs from the Ebro River basin (48%) results from occasionally higher concentrations of this analyte in treated wastewaters compared to raw wastewaters. This finding has also been reported in other studies [7, 19]. 

Preclinical studies have shown that fetal tetrahydro-cannabinoid levels remain lower than maternal plasma levels, indicating that the placenta may act as a partial barrier to this class of compounds. Decreased birth weight and postnatal growth have been observed in rats prenatally exposed to cannabis. Some studies have observed learning deficits in prenatally exposed animals, while others have not (Lee, 1998). 

There are striking parallels between the effects of opioids and cannabinoids on cytokine production. A -THC has also been shown to suppress proinflammatory cytokines crucial in host defense, such as TNF-a (Fischer-Stenger et al., 1993). Further studies showed a biphasic dose response to cytokine production by A -THC on human PBMCs, but it was the opposite of that observed with morphine, with low doses inhibiting TNF-a, lL-6 and lL-8, and high doses increasing these cytokines (Berdyshev et al., 1997). In a mouse model of Legionnaires Disease, A -THC blocked IFN-y, lL-12, and lL-12 receptor expression and increased lL-4 levels, reflecting a polarization of the immune response towards a Th2 phenotype (Perez-Castrillon et al, 1992 Klein and Cabral, 2(X)6). Similar... 

The active moieties of marijuana have been studied for medicinal purposes in a variety of models. Some canabinoids have displayed effects on neuronal transmission and alterations of calcium homeostasis. Other cannabinoids have been shown to stimulate cell death (apoptosis), which may help explain observed antitumor effects in some animal models. 

Studies of cellular adaptation to cannabinoid drugs have identified cellular changes that could predict the mechanism of synaptic plasticity. Homologous desensitization of adenylyl cyclase inhibition was observed within minutes of ex-... 

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