New Study Suggests CBD Reduces Methamphetamine Addiction

• The leading Journal of Psychopharmacology has published the results of a promising study carried out in rats.

• The study shows that high doses of CBD sharply reduce methamphetamine use and relapse, although further research is needed.

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, a specialist medical journal, provides evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabis compound, can inhibit the motivation to take methamphetamine, as shown in rats. The preliminary findings suggest the substance could help fight methamphetamine addiction, which has become one of the most commonly abused drugs worldwide.

“One of the focuses of my lab is understanding the neurobiology of methamphetamine addiction so that we can discover effective treatments that reduce this burden on our society,” explained the study’s author, Jennifer Cornish of Macquarie University. “Cannabinoids show promise as medicines for several mental health disorders and symptoms in preclinical models, including drug addiction and relapse to opiates and psychostimulants.”

The researchers found that treatment with 80 mg/kg of cannabidiol (CBD) reduced the motivation to take methamphetamine in rats trained to self-administer the addictive stimulant.

“I think it is important for our society to understand that ‘medicinal cannabis’ covers a wide range of chemicals found in the cannabis (marijuana) plant, many of which are not psychoactive (unlike delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive component of marijuana), and each may have a medical application yet to be discovered,” Cornish told PsyPost. The study showed that, in a preclinical setting, high doses of CBD can reduce methamphetamine use and help prevent relapse. “Many more studies are needed in this area before CBD is used in the human population of methamphetamine users, but this study is a first step in understanding the potential use of CBD treatment for methamphetamine addiction.” Like all research, the study has some limitations. “The main caveats here are that the study was done in rodents and uses high doses of CBD. However, there is substantial overlap between rat and human neurobiology, and preclinical studies like this provide important information on the possible use of new chemicals in human disorders,” Cornish explained. “From this data set, we can design further experiments that uncover not only the effectiveness of CBD as a therapy for methamphetamine addiction, but also the mechanisms by which CBD may reduce methamphetamine intake. By understanding these mechanisms, we can inform the discovery of more targeted therapies that will work like CBD but at smaller therapeutic doses.”

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