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Browse normalized, publication-ready research with direct links to its evidence and source.
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Readable research linked to original sources
Browse normalized, publication-ready research with direct links to its evidence and source.
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Readable research linked to original sources
Browse normalized, publication-ready research with direct links to its evidence and source.
23 articles
Newest firstBackground and purpose Epilepsy is a common indication for medicinal cannabis (MC) prescription in Australia. Despite legal MC products being available for 8 years, some individuals continue to rely on illicit cannabis. Here, we conducted a survey of Australian persons/people with epilepsy (PWE) and caregivers of a PWE to assess whether the current legal framework supports PWE and/or their caregivers to access pre…
Open article record in new tab ↗Background Exercise is known to improve health. However, it can be unpleasant, often inducing negative feelings, or 'affect'. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating constituent of the cannabis plant, has been reported to enhance the subjective experience of exercise; specifically, in trained individuals performing fixed-intensity endurance activity. Here, we investigated the effects of CBD on subjective responses t…
Open article record in new tab ↗Hand osteoarthritis (OA) is an irreversible degenerative condition causing chronic pain and impaired functionality. Existing treatment options are often inadequate. Cannabidiol (CBD) has demonstrated analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in preclinical models of arthritis. In this open-label feasibility trial, participants with symptomatically active hand OA applied a novel transdermal CBD gel (4% w/w) three tim…
Background Australian pharmacists currently dispense a wide range of prescription-only cannabis-based medicines. Recent regulatory changes will expand the role of pharmacists, allowing certain low-dose cannabidiol products to be supplied without a prescription in pharmacies. This harmonises Australia with many other countries where cannabidiol products are readily available to consumers. Aim To examine Australian…
Objective: Evidence is accumulating that components of the Cannabis sativa plant may have therapeutic potential in treating psychiatric disorders. Medicinal cannabis (MC) products are legally available for prescription in Australia, primarily through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Special Access Scheme B (SAS-B). Here we investigated recent prescribing practices for psychiatric indications under SAS-B…
Road safety is an important concern amidst expanding worldwide access to legal cannabis. The present study reports on the driving-related subsection of the Cannabis as Medicine Survey 2020 (CAMS-20) which surveyed driving-related behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions among Australian medical cannabis (MC) users. Of the 1063 respondents who reported driving a motor vehicle in the past 12 months, 28% (297/1063) repo…
Open article record in new tab ↗Background: T-type Ca2+ channels (Cav3) represent emerging therapeutic targets for a range of neurological disorders, including epilepsy and pain. To aid the development and optimisation of new therapeutics, there is a need to identify novel chemical entities which act at these ion channels. A number of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) have been found to exhibit activity at T-type channels, suggesti…
Rationale Cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) are non-psychoactive components of the cannabis plant. CBD has been well characterised to have anxiolytic and anticonvulsant activity, whereas the behavioural effects of CBDA are less clear. Preclinical and clinical data suggests that CBD has antipsychotic properties and reduces methamphetamine self-administration in rats. An animal model that is commonly u…
Background Purified cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive phytocannabinoid, has gained regulatory approval to treat intractable childhood epilepsies. Despite this, artisanal and commercial CBD-dominant hemp-based products continue to be used by epilepsy patients. Notably, the CBD doses used in these latter products are much lower than that found to be effective in reducing seizures in clinical trials with purified…
Introduction: Cannabidiol (CBD) has been clinically approved for intractable epilepsies, offering hope that novel anticonvulsants in the phytocannabinoid class might be developed. Looking beyond CBD, we have recently reported that a series of biosynthetic precursor molecules found in cannabis display anticonvulsant properties. However, information on the pharmacological activities of these compounds on CNS drug ta…
Open article record in new tab ↗Many jurisdictions use point-of-collection (POC) oral fluid testing devices to identify driving under the influence of cannabis, indexed by the presence of Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an intoxicating cannabinoid, in oral fluid. Although the use of the non-intoxicating cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), is not prohibited among drivers, it is unclear whether these devices can reliably distinguish between CBD and TH…
Background Medicinal cannabis (MC) products have been available on prescription in Australia for around six years. General practitioners (GPs) are at the forefront of MC prescribing and recent years have seen substantial increases in prescription numbers. This study examined the current knowledge, experiences, and attitudes of Australian GPs around MC. We also compared our findings to those of an earlier 2017 inve…
Open article record in new tab ↗A regulatory framework allowing legal access to medicinal cannabis (MC) products has operated in Australia since November 2016. MC prescribing by healthcare practitioners (HCPs) is primarily conducted through the Special Access Scheme - Category B (SAS-B) pathway, through which prescribers apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA-the federal regulator) for approval to prescribe a category of product to a…
Global interest in the non-intoxicating cannabis constituent, cannabidiol (CBD), is increasing with claims of therapeutic effects across a diversity of health conditions. At present, there is sufficient clinical trial evidence to support the use of high oral doses of CBD (e.g., 10-50 mg/kg) in treating intractable childhood epilepsies. However, a question remains as to whether "low-dose" CBD products confer any th…
Open article record in new tab ↗Objective Cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), a precursor cannabinoid in Cannabis sativa, has recently been found to have anticonvulsant properties in the Scn1a+/- mouse model of Dravet syndrome. Poor brain penetration and chemical instability of CBGA limits its potential as an anticonvulsant therapy. Here, we examined whether CBGA methyl ester, a more stable analogue of CBGA, might have superior pharmacokinetic and antic…
Introduction Synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) are a diverse class of new psychoactive substances that have been associated with multiple instances and types of toxicity. Some SCRAs appear to carry a greater toxicological burden than others, or compared to the prototypical cannabis-derived agonist Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), despite a common primary mechanism of action via cannabinoid 1 (CB1) r…
Background In 2016, the Australian federal government passed legislation enabling a range of cannabis-based products to be prescribed to patients by registered healthcare professionals. An online survey conducted immediately prior to these legislative changes found that the vast majority of respondents at the time were illicitly sourcing cannabis plant matter, smoking was the preferred route of administration and…
Open article record in new tab ↗Objective Cannabidiol (CBD) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat intractable childhood epilepsies, such as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. However, the intrinsic anticonvulsant activity of CBD has been questioned due to a pharmacokinetic interaction between CBD and a first-line medication, clobazam. This recognized interaction has led to speculation that the anticonv…
Point-of-collection testing (POCT) for Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid is increasingly used to detect driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC). However, previous studies have questioned the reliability and accuracy of two commonly used POCT devices, the Securetec DrugWipe® 5 s (DW5s) and Dräger DrugTest® 5000 (DT5000). In the current placebo controlled, double-blind, crossover study we used liqu…
The structural diversity of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist (SCRA) new psychoactive substances (NPS) has increased since the first examples were reported a decade ago. 5F-PY-PICA and 5F-PY-PINACA were identified in 2015 as putative SCRA NPS, although nothing is known of their pharmacology. 5F-PY-PICA, 5F-PY-PINACA, and analogues intended to explore structure-activity relationships within this class of SCRAs…
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