Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States after alcohol and tobacco. Cannabis use disorder was first introduced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of cannabis use disorder Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), to provide a more accurate, evidence-based framework for diagnosing problematic cannabis use. Yale doctors have also conducted studies to measure the effects of combining psychotherapies to treat cannabis dependence.
How long does it take to recover from Cannabis Use Disorder?
Professional guidance helps you adapt these strategies to your specific needs and circumstances. A highly effective psychological service that can be integrated into the recovery process is https://laretrocueva.es/how-to-help-an-alcoholic-support-someone-with-2/ Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which has shown significant success in treating substance abuse. The structured environment of professional treatment programs provides the necessary tools and support for successful recovery from Cannabis Use Disorder. The brain’s adaptation to frequent THC exposure creates a new baseline state, requiring the presence of cannabis to maintain normal function. This neuroadaptation explains why attempts to stop using cannabis can trigger significant physical and psychological distress. Cannabis is the most used drug amongst pregnant mothers who admitted to using drugs.
- “It is likely that the combination of behavioral and pharmacological approaches will be superior to either alone.”
- People who use cannabis to cope with stress or emotional difficulties may be at higher risk of developing CUD.
- Marijuana Anonymous is a worldwide organization focused on helping people addicted to this substance.
- Researchers struggle to gain funding for these studies given that the drug is a Schedule I controlled substance.
Health and Safety
Understanding the roles of endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids may increase our knowledge of the developmental trajectories of different addictive substances if THC modifies the dopaminergic reward system to make other substances more rewarding262. Overarching theories of SUDs have been proposed170, but there is no specific framework for CUD. The shared risk factor hypothesis has been tested by assessing whether associations between cannabis and other illicit drug use persists after controlling for these factors. In these studies, adjusting for alcoholism treatment risk factors reduces but does not eliminate the relationship between regular cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs.
Physical and Long-Term Health Risks
However, chronic administration of rimonabant led to adverse psychiatric events, which resulted in its withdrawal from the market. Rimonabant was therefore used only for a few years in Europe and never marketed in North America (48). At the present time, various investigators are pursuing other ways of modulating the CB1 transmission that may be devoid of the psychiatric side-effects of rimonabant. For example, AM4113 is a neutral CB1 antagonist has been developed that is able to reduce THC taking and THC seeking in squirrel monkeys (47) (Figure 2A), but it appears to have a better tolerability profile (49). Pregnenolone is a drug that can block some effects of THC by acting as a signaling-specific inhibitor of CB1 (CB1-SSi) (50).