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Cannabis, Schizophrenia and Reward: Self-Medication and Agonist Treatment?
In this translational research proposal, based on our formulation, we seek to confirm and expand upon data obtained in our pilot study suggesting that cannabis and the cannabinoid agonist dronabinol, given in low dose to patients with schizophrenia and co-occurring cannabis use disorder, will in fact ameliorate the brain reward circuit dysregulation in these patients and, thereby, provide evidence in support of the role of cannabis as a "self-medication" agent for them.
Details
| Lead sponsor | Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center |
|---|---|
| Phase | Phase 1 |
| Status | COMPLETED |
| Enrolment | 263 |
| Start date | 2014-07 |
| Completion | 2021-09-18 |
Conditions
- Schizophrenia
- Dual Diagnosis
- Psychotic Disorder
- Cannabis Use Disorder
Interventions
- Marijuana
- Dronabinol
- Placebo
Primary outcomes
- Brain Reward Circuit Activation on fMRI Scan — 3 hours
Activation of the Brain Reward Circuit (particularly the nucleus accumbens) in anticipation of monetary reward. The 'Measure' is a mean of the Fisher-Z transform of the inter-regional correlation measured for each participant between the nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex. The Fisher-transformation creates a normally distributed correlation value for statistical analyses assessing between group differences. A Fisher-Z transform of '0' represents a value of '0' for the estimated correlation, which represents no correlation in the activity time series between the regions. The values reflect strengths of functional connectivity between brain regions that can be compared between groups (e.g. Healthy controls and SCZ-CUD groups who received different study drugs). Means and standard deviations similar to healthy controls would be considered a good outcome. - Resting State Connectivity Within the Brain Reward Circuitry — 1 hour after smoking study drug, 3 hours after oral dronabinol
Resting state connectivity within brain reward circuitry as measured with the Fisher-transformed r value of the connectivity maps between the nucleus accumbans and other brain areas. The Fisher-transformation creates a normally distributed correlation value for statistical analyses assessing between group differences (smoked THC vs placebo; oral dronabinol vs placebo)
Countries
United States