COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in devastating mortality and morbidity consisting of socioeconomic and health effects that have included respiratory/pulmonary, cardiovascular, mental health and neurological consequences such as anxiety, depression, and substance use. Several effective vaccines have been developed and extensive efforts are underway to develop therapeutics to treat COVID-19. Cannabis and/or its product-cannabidiol (CBD) are being advertised for the treatment of COVID-19 associated...

The recent shift in socio-political debates and growing liberalization of Cannabis use across the globe has raised concern regarding its impact on vulnerable populations such as adolescents. Concurrent with declining perception of Cannabis harms, more adolescents are using it daily in several countries and consuming marijuana strains with high content of psychotropic delta (9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). These dual, related trends seem to facilitate the development of compromised social and...

Conditioned craving to trauma cues and avoidance learning have both been implicated in the high concurrence of trauma-related distress and substance misuse. Using a cue-exposure paradigm involving personalized trauma, cannabis, and neutral cues, we examined if conditioned craving and/or elevated negative affect to trauma cues are mechanisms linking PTSD and cannabis use disorder. Fifty-one trauma-exposed cannabis users were randomly presented the three cue types. Craving and emotional responses...

CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the feasibility of conducting clinical trials of varenicline as a candidate pharmacotherapy for CUD, and indicate that a full-scale efficacy trial, powered based on effect sizes and variability yielded in this study, is warranted.