ReviewJournal of cannabis research2025
Effect of cannabinoids on glutamate levels in the human brain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Journal of cannabis research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Enhanced Anti-Nociception by Novel Dual Antagonists for 5-HT2AR and mGluR5 in Preclinical Models of Pain.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- Psychoactive substances: novel molecular insights and therapeutic potential for Alzheimer's disease.Translational neurodegeneration · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Increased extracellular glutamate concentrations in the brain can cause neuronal injury. Cannabinoid use has been demonstrated to reduce extracellular glutamate levels in the brain in many animal models. However, there are no systematic reviews published evaluating the effect of cannabis on glutamate levels in the human brain. This review aimed to review studies that investigated the effect of cannabinoids on glutamate levels in the living human brain using neuroimaging methods and to provide evidence gathered from biomedical databases such as MEDLINE and EMBASE. Nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and ten observational studies met the eligibility criteria for this review. The articles included in the meta-analyses had a low risk of bias. Meta-analysis showed cannabis intake has no effects on the glutamate levels in human brain. However, there is limited evidence indicating that oral cannabidiol and cannabidivarin increased the glutamate/glutamine ratio in the basal ganglia while intravenous and vaped tetrahydrocannabinol increased glutamate in the basal ganglia. There is also some evidence showing oral cannabidiol increased glutamate in the hippocampus. Most of the observational studies in this review demonstrated a reduction in glutamate in the brain of chronic cannabis users. However, these findings are not definitive and will require further confirmations. This review suggests that acute cannabis administration may increase glutamate in the basal ganglia and hippocampus but not in other parts of the brain, while chronic cannabis use lead to a decrease in glutamate levels in some parts of the brain. The quality of this evidence is limited therefore further studies are needed.
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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.