Cannabis + depression= NO-NO

[Arc_of_Light]

I have just been speaking to a friend who is undergoing treatment for depression and he told me that his doctor found out that he was smoking because of some Electroencefalogram (EEG) results in which some funny waves showed up. He was told to quit smoking, else he would never be cured. My friend feels A-OK at this point and is near the end of the treatment he is currently following. The doctor said that smoking weed was bad for him due to the fact that it alters dopamine levels in the brain, brings them down is what I think he said.

I did a web search and looked at a few books, but I can't find anything on the topic. Can anyone shed some light on the topic?

Arc_of_Light Reviewed by Arc_of_Light on 09-09-2007. Cannabis + depression= NO-NO I have just been speaking to a friend who is undergoing treatment for depression and he told me that his doctor found out that he was smoking because of some Electroencefalogram (EEG) results in which some funny waves showed up. He was told to quit smoking, else he would never be cured. My friend feels A-OK at this point and is near the end of the treatment he is currently following. The doctor said that smoking weed was bad for him due to the fact that it alters dopamine levels in the brain, Rating: 5

[JohnHerer]

:google::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[psychocat]

It is very much a personal thing and varies because of that ,,but for some people smoking cannabis can have a negative effect on depression.
I have a couple of friends who suffer and for them it is definately not a good thing, others I know find it helps .

[birdgirl73]

Yep, you can find fairly equal amounts of evidence to support both the ease of depressive symptoms and the aggravation of them. How it actually acts depends on the person and, I'm sure, the strain, too, but it's true that cannabis does indeed tinker with neurotransmitters and, in many people, can worsen depression after the initial euphoric psychoactive period passes.

[Purple Banana]

How could he tell if he smoked pot from EEG results? Is that even possible?

[birdgirl73]

Yeah, cannabis use, especially heavy use, heightens the alpha brain wave activity on an EEG. So a neurologist could see that and then conclude, particularly after asking the patient to confirm it, that the subject of the EEG is a cannabis-user. If he didn't ask, a good neurologist would simply suspect it.

[Nailhead]

Yep, you can find fairly equal amounts of evidence to support both the ease of depressive symptoms and the aggravation of them. How it actually acts depends on the person and, I'm sure, the strain, too, but it's true that cannabis does indeed tinker with neurotransmitters and, in many people, can worsen depression after the initial euphoric psychoactive period passes.

I've always heard that indica's are better for people that are depressed because sativas are usually the ones that activate it because of their higher levels of THC. Can you shed some light on this? I've been trying to avoid sativas because I've been depressed for some time, (never gone to a doc for it though), but recently I read a lot of Crohn's patients find great relief with some of the sativa variations. So far I haven't found the magic strain that works for me, so I'd like to try some of these but don't really want to make my depression/anxiety any worse

[smokin123]

My 'friend' has depression. Weed DEFINITELY helps, not hurts. But, I suspect it varies between people as someone previous wrote.

[robo scat]

Everybody's different, unfortunately.

[birdgirl73]

I was reading this link, which is one I'd had in my files and one Granny Storm Crow has on her list of pro-cannabis links, too. This has some good all-purpose information that says the same "depends on the person" thing we've all heard and read before.
AAMC: Cannabis and Depression

In general, it says, Indica strains are the more sedating ones, which is probably meant to imply that they can also be more depressing ones, whereas Sativas are more of the uppers. The only hitch is that different types of depression can vary with how they respond to the effects of those strains, too. People who have a lot of anxiety and panic with their depression can get aggravation of those symptoms with sativas, I know. Yet people who are the sad, lethargic, couch-locked depressives wouldn't be good candidates for pure Indicas, certainly.

This is why we need this to be medicinally legal in all states and according to federal law, so the information about what works and what doesn't and who can benefit can be studied, in depth. Then people who get benefit from their depression symptoms can use it freely and those who don't can try the other things that work, like exercise and, for many, prescribed medicines.