M. PACIN, I. MAREMMANI - Vol. 9, March 2003, Issue 1
Testo Bibliografia Summary Indice
Proprietà terapeutiche dei cannabinoidi:
stato dell’arte e implicazioni per la ricerca
Terapeutic properties of cannabinoids: State-of-the-art and research perspectives
In the latest years, the interest into the biological
properties of cannabinoids has met a new lease of life, in the trail of recent
acknowledgements about the endogenous cannabinoid systems. Nevertheless, research
effort has been mostly addressed either at psychotoxic effects of cannabis (amotivational
sindrome) or at the role of cannabis abuse in the genesis of some psychiatric
disorders (e.g. chronic psychoses). However, clinical investigations on the
possible therapeutic use of cannabis and its active components has led to new
perspectives for research.
Scientific evidence for a possibile therapeutical use of cannabinoids, agonists and antagonists, shows how the political controversy upon the issue of cannabis legalization, beyond specific sides, ended up to hamper scientific efforts: thus, research into the toxic effects of smoked cannabis has proceeded with no parallel increase in the knowledge about possible therapeutical profiles of cannabinoids compounds. We recommend that clinical and neurobiological research on both the negative and positive effects of cannabinoids meet a reprise, with no prohibitionist implication, so as to allow scientific knowledge to improve. This article deals with the evidence of cannabinoids’ effects and their therapeutic potential in a variety of medical conditions, of general (emesis, loss of appetite, glaucoma, asthma, neoplastic growth) and neuropsychiatric (spasms, pain, epilepsy, neuronal overstimulation, craving for heroin)