Depression

[Root]

Depression part 1
http://stressedanddepressed.ca/book...-cannabis-as-an-antidepressant-and-stimulant/

A Brief History of the Use of Cannabis as an Antidepressant and Stimulant
By David Malmo-Levine and Rob Callaway, M.A., 2012

Cannabis, Cure-Alls, and Evidence​

History teaches us that we should all be wary of cure-all claims. Therefore, it is understandable that many physicians are reluctant to accept what appear, at face-value, to be exaggerated claims made by cannabis consumers in relation to the therapeutic benefits derived from their use of the plant. This one plant and its numerous active compounds, it is claimed, seem to positively affect nearly every ailment of our minds and bodies, from mental illness to cancer. Is this possible? In short, yes. In fact, there is no shortage of evidence to substantiate many of these claims. The last couple of decades have seen an incredible explosion of research exploring the potential therapeutic applications of cannabis and cannabis-derived medications. Today, more evidence is available in relation to the positive therapeutic applications of cannabis than is available for some of the most widely used conventional medications and therapies (Sulak, 2011).

The Endocannabinoid System​

It is widely understood, although not as widely recognized by the medical community, that cannabis is both powerful and safe, and can alleviate the suffering of dozens of severe chronic and acute medical conditions. How is it possible that one plant can do so much? The answer lies in the fairly recently discovered physiologic system known as the endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in modulating and regulating nearly every bodily function in all vertebrates (de Fonseca et al., 2005; Gieringer, Rosenthal, & Carter, 2008; Grotenhermen, 2006a). Our bodies naturally produce five known chemical compounds called endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids (de Fonseca et al.; Grotenhermen, 2006b), similar in structure and action to the chemical compounds found most abundantly in cannabis, called phytocannabinoids, of which at least 85 have been identified and isolated from the plant (El-Alfy et al., 2010). These naturally occurring compounds and their two known receptors, CB1 and CB2, are found virtually everywhere in the human body, from the brain, organs, connective tissues and glands, to immune cells (Grotenhermen, 2006a, 2006b; Sulak, 2011). Despite different functions of the endocannabinoid system, which depend upon the location in the body of the receptors of interest, the goal is constant: homeostasis, or “the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment” (Sulak, 2011, p. 11; Melamede, 2005). In fact, cannabinoids promote homeostasis at every level of biological life, from the sub-cellular to the whole organism, and thus, the endocannabinoid system is a global homeostatic regulator (Melamede, 2005). It is estimated that the endocannabinoid system evolved over 600 million years ago, and is now shared by all vertebrates as an essential part of adaptation to environmental changes, and thus, an essential part of life (Guzmán, 2005; Melamede, 2005; Sulak, 2011). Therefore, the endocannabinoid system is a central component of both health and healing, perhaps the most important system (Melamede, 2005; Sulak, 2011).

Depression and Fatigue​

Historically, depression has been variously defined as an “absence of cheerfulness or hope” (Dorland, 1903a, p. 206), being “low in spirits” (Taber et al., 1952, p. D-15), an “emotional state of dejection” (Hoerr & Osol, 1952, p. 196), “the blues” (Schifferes, 1963, p. 117), and “extreme feelings of sadness, dejection, lack of worth and emptiness” (Glanze, Anderson, & Anderson, 1987a, p. 174), while emotional depression in one text is an “undue sadness or melancholy due to no recognizable cause” (Dorland, 1960, p. D-8). The contemporary definition of depression, however, is more complex. Physicians, and in particular psychiatrists and psychologists, rely on the clinical definition of depression found in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM). Version IV, with text revisions (DSM-IV-TR) is the most recent release and was published in 2000. The DSM-5 (note: the APA dropped the roman numerals for the newest version) is scheduled for publication in 2013 (APA, n.d.). According to the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000), a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, otherwise known as clinical depression, major depression, or unipoloar depression, requires at least two major depressive episodes, characterized by depressed mood and/or loss of interest or pleasure in life activities for at least two weeks, and at least five of the following symptoms that cause clinically significant impairment in social, work, or other important areas of functioning almost every day. One of the symptoms must be either (a) depressed mood, or (b) loss of interest:

1. Depressed mood most of the day.
   
   
2. Diminished interest or pleasure in all or most activities.
   
   
3. Significant unintentional weight loss or gain.
   
   
4. Insomnia or sleeping too much (hypersomnia).
   
   
5. Agitation or psychomotor retardation noticed by others.
   
   
6. Fatigue or loss of energy.
   
   
7. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt.
   
   
8. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness.
   
   
9. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide (with or without a plan), or an attempted suicide (APA, 2000, p. 356).

Depression is fast becoming a serious problem globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) has forecast that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability and premature death worldwide, for all ages and both sexes (WHO, n.d.). Unfortunately, current therapies fail to help approximately 30% of the depressed population (Pacher, Batkai, & Kunos, 2004), and therefore, it is imperative that any potentially beneficial interventions be pursued. Fatigue has been defined as “weariness, usually from overexertion” (Dorland, 1903b, p. 265). More contemporarily, fatigue is defined as a “feeling of weariness, tiredness, or lack of energy” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011). Note that overexertionis left out of the current definition because fatigue may be a normal response to physical overexertion, but may also be a normal response to emotional stress, sleep deprivation, or even boredom, and may be alleviated by proper sleep hygiene, stress reducing activities such as exercise or meditation, and/or proper nutrition. However, fatigue may also be a symptom of more serious mental or physical conditions, as fatigue is also a common symptom of major depression or may be the result of diseases such as diabetes and lupus (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011).

Antidepressants and Stimulants​

An antidepressant is defined as “a drug or a treatment that prevents or relieves depression” (Glanze et al., 1987b, p. 36). A stimulantis defined as “an agent or remedy that produces…functional activity” (Dorland, 1903c, p. 666). According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), stimulants “increase alertness, attention, and energy, as well as elevate blood pressure and increase heart rate, and respiration” (NIDA, 2001/2011, p. 6).

The History of the Use of Cannabis as an Antidepressant and Stimulant​

Within the long history of medical literature concerning cannabis there are many differing views about the risks associated with the use of cannabis, as well as varying opinions about the causes of those risks. However, as to the effects of cannabis, its reputation as an antidepressant and stimulant has remained a constant through thousands of years of documented use, including up to the present day.

The Ancient Era​

One of the first recorded benefits of cannabis use was to relieve depression. The earliest known descriptions of cannabis or hashish (note: hashish or hasheesh is a concentrated extract of whole cannabis) being used to treat depression and fatigue come from clay tablets from the 22nd century B.C.E. in Sumer. Thompson spent 50 years deciphering medical texts from the Bronze Age civilization of Assyria (Russo, 2007) and translated the tablets in 1949, revealing that cannabis was used for grief or “depression of spirits” (as cited in Fride & Russo, 2006, p. 372). Homer – circa the 8th century B.C.E. – wrote of nepenthes, a magical drug that could assuage grief (literally, an antisorrow drug), believed by some scholars and writers to be cannabis (Abel, 1980; Robinson, 1946). Herodotus – circa 440 B.C.E. – wrote that the Scythians “…delighted, shout for joy…” from breathing in hemp (i.e., cannabis) seed vapors (Herodotus, 440 B.C.E./1994) and Democritus (460-371 B.C.E), the ‘laughing philosopher’, spoke of a plant called potamaugis – thought to be cannabis – which was responsible for “immoderate laughter” when drunk with wine or myrrh (Emboden, 1990, p. 219; Robinson, 1996, p. 77). Galen (129-216 C.E.) wrote that cannabis was a “promoter of high spirits” (Rätsch, 1998/2001, p. 91), and described the custom of using cannabis to infuse occasions with laughter and joy by sharing cannabis with guests (Robinson, 1996). In addition, ancient Sanscrit writers speak of “Pills of Gaiety” – a preparation based on cannabis and sugar (Lewin, 1924/1998, p. 91). Mahsati, a 12th century Persian poet wrote that eating “a little” hashish helped “against sorrow” (as cited in Rätsch, 1998/2001, p. 99), while 12th and 13th century Egyptian poets indentified euphoria as one of the effects of eating hashish (Clarke, 1998, p. 238). The leader of the Safaviya (Sufi Order) from 1460-1488 C.E. was the Persian monk Haider – or Haydar – who introduced his fellow monks to hashish “and were transformed from austere ascetics into jolly good fellows” (Robinson, 1925, p. 30). In 1563, Garcia Da Orta (1563/1895, p. 56), physician, pioneer of tropical medicine, and naturalist, wrote that bangue, an Indian drink made with cannabis, allowed his servants “…not to feel work, to be very happy, and to have a craving for food”. Moreover, he noted that bangue could raise a man “…above all cares and anxieties, and it makes some break into a foolish laugh” (p. 55). Captain Thomas Bowrey noted similar effects and wrote in 1680 that if a user ingested cannabis when “merry…he Shall Continue Soe with Exceedinge great laughter…” (1905/1993, p. 79). In 1689 an account of the plant from India called Bangue, at that time largely unfamiliar to the British, was presented before the Royal Society. Descriptions of the effects upon ingesting a dose included “…yet is he very merry, and laughs, and sings” (Hooke, 1726, p. 210). Linnaeus (1707-1778), the father of modern taxonomy, stated that cannabis could be used for “chasing away melancholy” making the user feel “happy and funny” (Koerner, 1999, p. 41), and in 1777, Johan Friedrich Gmelin, a German botanist, wrote that “Orientals” mixed the cannabis buds with honey to “achieve a pleasant type of drunkenness” (as cited in Fankhauser, 2002, p. 41).

The Scientific Era​

In the modern scientific era (i.e., mid 18th century onward), a new appreciation for and interest in the medical benefits and potential negative effects of cannabis developed. However, similar to the observations of the ancients, modern doctors wrote that the effects of cannabis were “of the most cheerful kind, causing the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish, and to see aphrodisiac enjoyments” (O’Shaughnessy, 1839/1973, p. 7). In 1843, Dr. Ley observed that the use of hashish produced glee and cheerfulness in warmer regions, but that “n the colder climate of this country [England] the effects are much modified” (Ley, 1843, p. 487). In 1845, Dr. Moreau de Tours wrote in his book Hashish and Mental Illness that the effects of cannabis as hashish included “a feeling of gaiety and joy inconceivable to those who have never experienced it….It is really happiness[bolding added] that hashish gives, and by that I mean mental joy, not sensual joy as one might be tempted to believe” (Moreau, 1845/1973, pp. 211 and 28 respectively). He also noted that hashish could provide the means “of effectively combating the fixed ideas of depressives” (Moreau, 1845/1973, p. 211). Indeed, writers admitted they were “moved to laugh foolishly about the most unimportant matters” (von Bibra, 1885/1995, p. 153) and spoke “of exquisite lightness and airiness” (Taylor, 1855, p. 134), “unutterable rapture” (p. 138), “bliss of the gods” (p. 142), “unquenchable laughter” (p. 142), and of “a strange and unimagined ecstasy” (Ludlow, 1857, p. 24). Starting in the late 1850s, hashish candy for medical purposes was regularly advertised in newspapers and magazines. For example, in the October 16th, 1858 edition of Harper’s Weekly, a small advertisement for Gunjah Wallah’s Hasheesh Candy promises the user “A most pleasurable and harmless stimulant – Cures Nervousness, Weakness, Melancholy &c. Inspires all classes with new life and energy” (reprinted in Ludlow, 1857/1975, p. 201). Other examples include similar advertisements in Vanity Fair from August 16, 1862 (“Antique cannabis medicines: Hasheesh candy”, 2010).



In fact, much of 19th century medical opinion of the effects of cannabis was positive and included descriptions such as: “…the face is covered in smiles.…it has been proposed by M. Moreau to take advantage of this reputed action, to combat certain varieties of insanity connected with melancholy and depressing delusions” (Bell, 1857/1973, p. 42), “some inclination to laugh unnecessarily” (Polli, 1870, p. 99), “a sort of revery which is almost always very delightful…voluptuous ecstasy, usually free from a cynic element” (Trousseau & Pidoux, 1880, p. 265), “an agreeable exaltation of the mental faculties” (Lyman, 1885, p. 68), “pleasure” (Bose, 1894, p. 250), “motiveless merriment” (Stillé, Maisch, Caspari, & Maisch, 1894, p. 395), and of an effect which “allays morbid sensibility” (Pierce, 1895, p. 343, Pierce, 1918, p. 343).

Medical Indexes and Textbooks: Lying About the Risks but Telling the Truth About the High
Furthermore, many medical textbooks and drug indexes of the time made specific mention of the antidepressant effects of cannabis. For instance, the 1907 and 1930 Merck Indexes state that cannabis is used for “mental depression” (“Cannabis indica”, 1907, p. 123; “Cannabis”, 1930, p. 147), while several editions of Dock’s Textbook of Materia Medica for Nurses indicate that cannabis indica “causes a mental state of joyous exhilaration” (e.g., Dock, 1908, p. 241, Dock, 1916, p. 245). In addition, Blumgarten’s 1932 Textbook of Materia Medica states that cannabis produces “pleasure and exhilaration” which leaves the user “usually joyful and happy” (p. 338). Similarly, in TheBritish Pharmaceutical Codex, 1934, the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain wrote that cannabis produces “a feeling of happiness” (1934, p. 270), and 1935’s Everybody’s Family Doctor states that users may end up “feeling very gay and pleased with everything” (“Cannabis indica”, 1935, p. 130). While inaccurate about the risks of cannabis use, such as the claims that cannabis use causes schizophrenia, cancer, and violence (please refer to the free series of informative articles at www.stressedanddepressed.ca. for more in depth information), post-cannabis-prohibition medical textbooks (in the U.S., post-1937) continued to tell the truth about the actual effects of proper cannabis use. For example, The Dispensatory of the United States of America from 1947 states that “in some persons it appears to produce a euphoria….the euphoria produced is similar to that following alcohol but the sequelae after the acute effects have worn off are less unpleasant” (Osol & Farrar, 1947, p. 1383), while the Modern Medical Counselor notes that it “gives its user gay daydreams” (Swartout, 1949, p. 153), the 1950 Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy lists “giggling” (“Marihuana”, 1950, p. 1102) as one of the symptoms of smoking cannabis, and Solomon and Gill (1952, p. 188) in Pharmacology and Therapeutics describe one of the effects of cannabis use as “euphoria, a feeling of well-being accompanied by a dreamy state, exhilaration”. The Encyclopedia of Family Health of 1959 declares “marihuana…cheers the spirits” and makes users “exhilarated with a sense of well-being” (Fishbein, p. 761). In addition, the 1977 Merck Manual describes the effects of cannabis use in a positive light, asserting, “In general, there is a feeling of well-being, exaltation, excitement, and inner-joyousness that has been termed a ‘high’” (Berkow et al., 1977, p. 1515). Merck continued to use words such as euphoria in relation to cannabis use for decades, as is evidenced by its inclusion as an effect in the Merck Indexes from the 1960s (e.g., Stecher, Windholz, & Leahy, 1968, p. 201) through the new millennium (e.g., O’Neil et al., 2001, p. 292).

Government Reports​

Despite the preceding positive reports about the effects of cannabis, concerns about the potential negative effects of cannabis upon the physical and mental well-being of its consumers and society have also been part of the historical records. Thus, due to the controversy surrounding the use of cannabis, several countries’ governments have commissioned large-scale reports, on multiple occasions, to investigate the impacts of cannabis use on society and individuals. These comprehensive studies date back to over 100 years, have each typically taken several years to complete, and have included panels of experts from every discipline of study conceivably impacted by the use of cannabis. From the first government-commissioned report in 1894 up to the present day, all have noted the antidepressant effects of cannabis use. For example, in 1894 the British-initiated Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report noted that to devotees, bhang (the Indian drink made with cannabis, noted previously as bangue) is “the Joy-giver, the Sky-flier, the Heavenly-guide, the Poor Man’s Heaven, the Soother of Grief…” (Campbell, 1894, ¶ 10). Moreover, the Commission also found that cannabis had beneficial stimulating properties, as it was used as a tonic to effectively increase stamina (Mikuriya, 1998). Fifty years later, theLa Guardia Committee Report, the first in-depth investigation of smoked cannabis in the U.S., specifically looking at what was happening in New York, reported effects such as “…a sense of well-being and contentment, cheerfulness and gaiety…” (Mayor’s Committee on Marihuana, 1944, p. 37). The British conducted their own investigation and in 1968 published what is commonly known as the Wootton Report, which mentioned elation and euphoria as two of the effects (U.K. Home Office, 1968). Canada soon followed, and in 1972 published what is commonly called the Le Dain Commission, which came to similar conclusions, reporting in the interim report of 1970 that “Cannabis is an intoxicant and a euphoriant, and it generally acts as a relaxant” (LeDain, 1970, p. 202). Nearly simultaneously, then U.S. president Richard Nixon commissioned a report to study cannabis abuse in the U.S., commonly referred to as the Shafer Commission, which reported that “[a]t low, usual ‘social’ doses, the intoxicated individual may experience an increased sense of well-being; initial restlessness and hilarity followed by a dreamy, care-free state of relaxation” (Shafer, 1972, p. 68). The Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs more recently reported that “[l]ow doses generally produce the effects that cause people to like smoking pot. They include mild euphoria, relaxation, increased sociability and a non-specific decrease in anxiety” (Nolin, Kenny, Banks, Maheu, & Rossiter, 2002, p. 137). Thus, to date, every country that has commissioned an expertly conducted study of the effects of cannabis use has come to the same conclusion: Cannabis, when used at proper doses, has antidepressant properties.

Part 2
(https://www.autoflower.org/threads/depression-part-2.59929/)