Marijuana & Depression

Can Marijuana Work As An Antidepressant?

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Scientific Evidence

Many doctors are hesitant to proscribe pot for depression because the scientific literature is still a little hazy on whether or not it's a viable treatment. On, a website where MDs weigh in on medical issues, the consensus of whether or not pot can treat depression is split down the middle.

The first strong evidence of THC’s efficacy as an antidpressant was uncovered in a study done by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi at McGill University’s Neurobiological Psychiatry unit in 2008. The paper was published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Dr. Gobbi injected rats with a synthetic version of THC called WIN55, 212-2 and then subjected them to something called the “forced swim test” which measures depression in animals. She found that at low doses, the rats exhibited less depressive symptoms. At high doses, however, the effect was the opposite. The poor rats were miserable.

The study also notes the large volume of anecdotal data collected from patients supporting the role of marijuana as an antidepressant. Many AIDS and MS patients have reported improvements in mood disorders after consuming marijuana. Dr. Gobbi has also noticed that in her work as a clinical psychiatrist, many of her patients with depression were marijuana users.

Dr. Gobbi’s study concluded that THC mimics the body’s own endo-cannabinoid receptors and combines to the CB1 receptor in the brain, preventing the depletion of serotonin, which is the neurochemical that regulates mood. It is well known that a lack of serotonin causes depression. That’s why selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Celexa and Prozac are the drug of choice for doctors proscribing patients something to handle depression. Dr. Gobbi’s experiment indicated that THC can function in the same way — at the correct dosage.

Your Results May Vary

Calculating the most effective pot dosage for any given patient is hard to pin down. “I would assume it’s a case-by-case thing, where some people see some gains and others wouldn’t,” says Dias. “I'm probably one of the only people I know that actually uses it medicinally, and consumes the quantity that I do, and is still able to function. It's dependent on the person.”

The funny thing about weed is that everyone reacts differently to it, so what works for Diego Dias and myself might not work for everyone else. There aren't enough studies to have a concrete answer or blanket solution targeted at each individual just yet, but with the onslaught of weed legalizations, it will only become easier to study and develop the science around how weed can help ease a slew of medical symptoms, including those of depression.


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