Marijuana visibly changes the brain, but to what functional effect?
Recent neuroimaging studies show that the use of pot causes changes in the corpus callosum, the brain’s largest white-matter structure, although the physical effect probably isn’t associated with psychosis. However, that’s not necessarily to say the lesions, imaged in the studies with diffusion tensor MR tractography, don’t cause or contribute to other mental-health problems.
Clarkson University biochemistry and proteomics researcher Alisa Woods, PhD, considers some of the relevant data and comments on it in Neurology Times.
As the legalization of marijuana continues expanding the drug’s medicinal and recreational use, Woods writes, individuals and mental-health workers can draw from the data to mull how much smoking or ingesting, if any, is safe or advisable:
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.