Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2020
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol increases striatal glutamate levels in healthy individuals: implications for psychosis.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis and open-source database for in vivo brain Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy in health and disease.Analytical biochemistry · 2023Pooled it
- The Autism-Psychosis Continuum Conundrum: Exploring the Role of the Endocannabinoid System.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review of neuroimaging and acute cannabis exposure in age-of-risk for psychosis.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Medicinal cannabis for psychiatric disorders: a clinically-focused systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, Cannabidiol, and Acute Psychotomimetic States: A Balancing Act of the Principal Phyto-Cannabinoids on Human Brain and Behavior.Cannabis and cannabinoid research · 2023Trial
- Acute effects of ΔPsychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Effects of cannabidiol in cannabis flower: Implications for harm reduction.Addiction biology · 2022Trial
- Results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, multimodal-MRI pilot study of gabapentin for co-occurring bipolar and cannabis use disorders.Addiction biology · 2022Trial
- Reduced responsiveness of the reward system is associated with tolerance to cannabis impairment in chronic users.Addiction biology · 2021Trial
- Cannabis use and glutamate across the psychosis spectrum: in vivo evidence from 7T proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Adolescent ΔPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Paradoxical Effect of Cannabis Use on Cognition in Chronic Psychotic Disorders.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2026Article
- Cannabis Use and Glutamate across the Psychosis Spectrum: In Vivo Evidence from 7T Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.Research square · 2025Article
- Metabolic Profile of Male Cannabis Users and Estimation of Candidate Biomarkers.Chemical research in toxicology · 2025Article
- Effect of cannabinoids on glutamate levels in the human brain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of cannabis research · 2025Review
- Substance use and use disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2025Review
- Exploring causal mechanisms of psychosis risk.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Differential effects of cannabis constituents on schizophrenia-related psychosis: a rationale for incorporating cannabidiol into a schizophrenia therapeutic regimen.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Assessing rates and predictors of cannabis-associated psychotic symptoms across observational, experimental and medical research.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Smoking, tobacco dependence, and neurometabolites in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the association between cannabis use and acute or long-lasting psychosis are not completely understood. While some evidence suggests altered striatal dopamine may underlie the association, direct evidence that cannabis use affects either acute or chronic striatal dopamine is inconclusive. In contrast, pre-clinical research suggests that cannabis may affect dopamine via modulation of glutamate signaling. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design was used to investigate whether altered striatal glutamate, as measured using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, underlies the acute psychotomimetic effects of intravenously administered delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC; 1.19 mg/2 ml), the key psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in a set of 16 healthy participants (7 males) with modest previous cannabis exposure. Compared to placebo, acute administration of Δ9-THC significantly increased Glutamate (Glu) + Glutamine (Gln) metabolites (Glx) in the left caudate head (P = 0.027). Furthermore, compared to individuals who were not sensitive to the psychotomimetic effects of Δ9-THC, individuals who developed transient psychotic-like symptoms (~70% of the sample) had significantly lower baseline Glx (placebo; P 7= 0.023) and a 2.27-times higher increase following Δ9-THC administration. Lower baseline Glx values (r = -0.55; P = 0.026) and higher previous cannabis exposure (r = 0.52; P = 0.040) were associated with a higher Δ9-THC-induced Glx increase. These results suggest that an increase in striatal glutamate levels may underlie acute cannabis-induced psychosis while lower baseline levels may be a marker of greater sensitivity to its acute psychotomimetic effects and may have important public health implications.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.