New findings published in Biological Psychiatry

Philadelphia, PA, December 3, 2015 - Several studies have demonstrated that the primary active constituent of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (?9-THC), induces transient psychosis-like effects in healthy subjects similar to those observed in schizophrenia. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not clear.

A new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, reports that ?9-THC increases random neural activity, termed neural noise, in the brains of healthy human subjects. The findings suggest that increased neural noise may play a role in the psychosis-like effects of cannabis.

"At doses roughly equivalent to half or a single joint, ?9-THC produced psychosis-like effects and increased neural noise in humans," explained senior author Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.

"The dose-dependent and strong positive relationship between these two findings suggest that the psychosis-like effects of cannabis may be related to neural noise which...