A study of "teenaged" laboratory animals found that daily use of marijuana affected brain chemicals that regulate mood and anxiety. This may partly explain why daily marijuana consumption during adolescence can produce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and may even cause permanent brain damage.

• Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University in Canada says that marijuana alters the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine, which in turn affects mood and makes people more susceptible to stress.
  
• Even if the laboratory animals in her study stopped marijuana use by the end of the adolescence, the changes in the levels of the two brain chemicals were still detectable in adulthood.
• "Our study is one of the first to focus on the role of biological mechanisms at the root of this influence of cannabis on depression in adolescents," Dr. Gobbi said.
  

This study appeared in the journal Neurobiology of Disease.

Labels: teen_drug_use, marijuana, brain_damage

Posted By: Aspen/CRC