According to a recent article posted in The New York Times, clinicians have been studying the causes of anxiety for decades. Psychologists still question why some patients experience anxiety when danger and stress isnt present. Recently, neuroscientists have found that a genetic variation in the brain may cause higher levels of anandamide, which leads to a decrease in anxiety. Approximately twenty percent of adults have this mutation.
Those who have this variation are less likely to become addicted to marijuana and, possibly, other drugs because they don’t need the calming effects that marijuana provides. The problem with cannabis is it swamps and overpowers the brain’s cannabinoid system, and there is evidence that chronic use may not just relieve anxiety but interfere with learning and memory.
This article was worth reading, it included an experiment where 2100 healthy volunteers were studied found that people with two copies of the mutant gene had roughly half the rate 11 percent of cannabis dependence than those with one or no mutant gene 26 percent. The author goes on to suggest that we need to find a drug that increases anandamide for those who genetically are at a disadvantage.
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