Which are the effects of CBD (Cannabidiol) on Memory?

For many years now scientific research has been investigating the effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on cannabis consumers, and numerous studies investigated on the possible effects of CBD on short term and long term memory.

In the light of this growing interest, the World Health Organization published  the report on the safety profile of cannabis, with which scientific research on the topic was reviewed. According to the report, CBD in general involves near to zero risk for our health and a series of beneficial effects which are increasingly recognized by medicine.

CBD, THC and memory

Previously, in 2017,  an update of the study review conducted on cannabidiol already confirmed its safety profile, dispelling any existing doubt on the possibility that CBD would cause whichever kind of brain damage.

On the other hand, an analysis of 2013 published in the British Journal of Psychiatry underlined how a prolonged use of cannabis containing THC, could have some consequences on memories, while it isn’t possible yet to understand whether this is an irreversible consequence or dependant on the age on which one starts to consume cannabis.

The same study demonstrated how CBD can be capable of preventing the possible damage to episodic memory caused by THC.

In 2016, a team of the Society for the Study of Addiction presented the – particularly interesting – results – of a study aimed on explicitly studying how CBD is able to exercise an action on the capability of mammals to memorize and elaborate a memory.

In this specific case, CBD was able to mitigate the sense of “gratification” generated by substances causing dependence, due to the action on contextual memory: the capability of reminding the source and the circumstances of a specific event.

The study, for the occasion carried out on rats in the laboratory, encouraged other research groups to investigate the potentialities of CBD as a possible treatment to weaken the contextual memories associated with drug abuse.  

Medical research on human beings is, inevitably, much more complex and at the moment, the first encouraging results need further confirmation regarding the possible benefits of  CBD in fighting dependence.

The benefits of CBD on memory would regard the field of neurodegenerative disorders as well, which affect in particular the elderly.

In 2016, researchers of the Salk Institute of San Diego, California, published the results of an investigation conducted at the National Institute of Health, the agency of the Ministry of Health, and the Alzheimer Association, on the mechanisms of action of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Alzheimer’s disease causes the production of high levels of beta-amyloid by the nervous cells. Beta-amyloid is responsible for the brain “plaques” which represent a distinctive sign of the disorder.  

The researchers noticed how THC significantly reduced the quantity of the beta-amyloid protein and how it had contributed to the reduction of cell inflammation. Similar results made it happen that the potential of CBD and THC in fighting neurodegenerative disorders received growing attention of the scientific community.

In conclusion, almost the total of the conducted studies assert that CBD would have a completely irrelevant impact on memory and that in certain cases it could even bring beneficial effects.

Considering these positive results, it is increasingly clear, today, that new studies must be conducted in order to better understand the numerous potentialities of cannabidiol.