Marijuana Withdrawal Is Real, Study Says

[nabraxas]

26 September 2012

When people try to quit smoking pot, they experience real withdrawal symptoms that can affect their daily lives, a new study from Australia says.

In the study, habitual pot users who were asked to abstain for two weeks experienced irritability, sleep difficulties and other symptoms that affected their ability to work and their relationships with other people, said study researcher David Allsop, of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre at the University of New South Wales.

The biggest impairment to daily life was seen among users who were the most addicted to pot, Allsop said.

Moreover, the effects of withdrawal symptoms were on par with those of people going through nicotine withdrawal, Allsop said.

The idea that cannabis can be addictive has been debated. And although it is generally accepted now that the drug can cause addiction and withdrawal, researchers were not certain whether withdrawal from the drug was severe enough to interfere with daily life, Allsop said.

In fact, cannabis withdrawal is not included as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) — the bible of mental health disorders — although it is being considered for inclusion in the updated version that will be released next year. (In contrast, withdrawal from other substances, such as alcohol and cocaine, are included as disorders.)

The new findings show that doctors should be aware of the disorder, and educate patients about what symptoms they might experience when they try to quit, he said.

"I suspect that there is a long way to go still in changing the popular beliefs," about the effects of pot on health, Allsop said. But education that withdrawal "makes you irritable, tense and anxious, and disrupts your sleep, is one good place to gain some traction," he said.

Current treatments for marijuana addiction have shown very little success in terms of their ability to get people to abstain from the drug over the long term. Withdrawal symptoms could be contributing to this low success rate, Allsop said.

Providing tailored treatments for people going through withdrawal, such as stress management and sleep medication, could improve success rates, Allsop said.

The study involved 49 men and women from Sydney who were addicted to marijuana, and used the drug more than five days a week. Participants were asked to abstain from marijuana use for two weeks. Urine samples were collected to identify those who relapsed.

Ten participants relapsed during the study. These people were more likely than those who didn't relapse to have experienced greater impairment in their daily lives from withdrawal symptoms.

The withdrawal symptoms that contributed most to impairment were: physical tension, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, mood swings and loss of appetite.

The new findings, along with previous work, suggest cannabis withdrawal should be added as a disorder to the DSM, Allsop said.

"Cannabis is the most prevalent illicit drug all around the world — including in America — and current treatment options have very limited success rates for continuous abstinence," Allsop said. "Why wouldn't you include it?"

Because the number of users who relapsed was small, more research is needed to identify which withdrawal symptoms may predict relapse, Allsop said.

The study is published today (Sept. 26) in the journal PLOS ONE.

 

http://www.livescience.com/23494-cannabis-withdrawal-symptoms.html

Edited September 27, 2012 by nabraxas

[LikeAshesWeFade]

It most definitely does!! I can barely function without using cannabis both synthetic and the real deal. 3 days after stopping I get extreme aggression, irregular heartbeats, diorrhea, over-stimulation and fluctuating moods. I really don't understand why they aren't looking into cb1/2 antagonists to help with cannabis addiction and withdrawal. Just like they have naltrexone for opiate addicts.. that is an opioid antagonist. Thru the peak of my RC phase.. I came across many compounds in my studies that were cb2 agonists but cb1 antagonists.. therefore providing relief for cancer patients and enhancing their appetite without giving them the 'stoned' feeling.

Edited September 27, 2012 by LikeAshesWeFade

[Francois le Danque]

that's cool ashes, but i think antagonists would only worsen your withdrawal symptoms, whilst making it impossible to cure them if you relapse! the best option with most addictions, i think, is tailored tapering down of dose and frequency.

giving a person addicted to 'substance D' an antagonist of substance D would only serve to accelerate withdrawal and give them all the opposite effects to the drug theyre used to; but then if they say 'fuck this i want to treat my withdrawal' (even if with a smaller than usual dose), the antagonist would render this ineffective.

THEN once the antagonist wears off, subject will be so pissed off they will dive straight back into sD use and possibly overdose because the antagonist reset their tolerance (? is this a thing). so it could be dangerous to treat addiction this way.

then again maybe it's good to get it (withdrawal syndrome) out of the way? i dont think so though. /opinion

Edited September 27, 2012 by frank

[LikeAshesWeFade]

Yeah I see what you mean frank, that definitely makes sense. I wonder though why they use antagonists for opiate addiction such as naltrexone? Would it not worsen the addiction if they were to ever cease using the antagonist?

[Thelema]

I reckon Zyprexa (olanzapine) is good for cannabis withdrawal.

[Anodyne]

The biggest impairment to daily life was seen among users who were the most addicted to pot, Allsop said.

That's a circular argument. If that's the premise that they're basing their study on, I'd say that their results and conclusions are both questionable.

Not saying that people can't become dependent, but it would be really nice if we could keep the distinction between physical and psychological dependence clear. Which that article does not do.

And thankyou nabraxas, for omitting their postscript.

[BentoSpawn]

49 people (well actually only really 39 because of relapses) is a terribly small test group and thus the results are not reliable.

You can come up with any results you want if you take enough small study groups... Pharmecutical companies are champions of this

Just went to bali for 12 days and experienced zero withdrawel symptoms during my stay.

[Change]

Psychological dependence can exhibit physical withdrawals

So whats the difference between psychological and physical dependence ?

Another point id like to make is marijuana smokers quite often mix their weed with tobacco which has known addictive quality. So if a marijuana & tobacco combo smokers stops daily smoking without replacing the nicotine some withdrawals would be expected, i dont think the study took this into consideration.

[Anodyne]

Psychological dependence can exhibit physical withdrawals

So whats the difference between psychological and physical dependence ?

 

Ok, I'm not great at explaining these things, but I'll give it a whirl:

I would say that with physical dependence, the body adjusts to the presence of a substance, so that that substance is required for normal functioning. This doesn't only occur with fun illicit things, but also with drugs like blood pressure meds, anti-diarrheals, steroids, and so on.

With psychological dependence, the drug (or activity) is taken (or performed) in a compulsive way, as a habit or ritual. So this can apply to stuff like playing computer games and over-eating, as well as to non-physically-addictive drugs.

An important point here is that drugs/activities which can produce psychological-dependence also produce physiological effects. Release of endorphins is a big one, and is the reason that some non-opiate dependencies can be treated with naltrexone - it helps block the "rewarding" effect of alcohol or gambling or bulimia or whatever (as a side note: cannabis "addicts" don't respond to naltrexone). Other stuff is involved, dopamine and maybe even some immune pathways, but that's probably getting off-topic.

In short, yes DTB you make a good point, there is some overlap. Psychological dependence has real physical effects, and removal of the drug/activity can produce psychological symptoms which may also have real physical effects. And drugs which cause physical dependence can often also produce psychological dependence. But none of that means that cannabis has a "physical withdrawal syndrome". I hope that answers the question somewhat.

Another point id like to make is marijuana smokers quite often mix their weed with tobacco which has known addictive quality. So if a marijuana & tobacco combo smokers stops daily smoking without replacing the nicotine some withdrawals would be expected, i dont think the study took this into consideration.

 

That's a really good point! They even suggested it themselves, but apparently didn't make the link:

Moreover, the effects of withdrawal symptoms were on par with those of people going through nicotine withdrawal, Allsop said.

[Pat Uri]

Ho! Ho! - back a bit, I challenged my local Federal Minister that I could go without cannabis for a long a she could go without caffeine.

(She is a most excellent sport - hence why we all love her and vote her in)

Now I made her abstinence unbearable (as was my own - tee!hee!) by supplying her staff endless espresso coffees, roasting beans, sending tea and teacakes over.

Didn't bother me one bit1 - slurping freshly brewed coffee, smoking cigars, shot glassing Schnapps in front of her. Anything - but the demonic weed

She rang no more than 40hrs later calling the bet off - with me the clear winner. She could get nothing done, her thoughts obsessed, distraction futile - she HAD to have her caffeine to function at all. Withdrawal had turned her manic, schizophrenic and irrational.

Only once her addiction had been satisfied could she be rational enough to consider withdrawal from it. She agreed "you need it to stay normal"...

I know she has taken it to cosideration...but I don't think it will ever be legal

Edited September 29, 2012 by Pat Uri

[dizzyanarchist]

i was reading somewhere tobacco actualy inhibits pot and other substances like i reckon lightly inhibits alcohol to so i tend to think that weed could be partialy addictive and tobacco would just inhibit the addictive quality like those dudes that like their weed mix's 50/50 60/40 a close family friend smokes with a pinch of tobacco to take off the edge he seems to control his habbit fine and operate fine only has a cone every half hour to 45 minutes after work let alone if u really call it a habbit he can go without easy and no withdrawals just most his old pains bother him what i call a habbit where u smoke daily and feel like u need it. im constantly telling myself i want it not need it and i like a green mix but it just doesn't feel same i like to smoke 60/40 mix's most the time but i go without i get agitated my sleep patterns go worse and id like to quit ciggys but i dont think i can smoking mix sort of thinkin need to quit them both so i can get off the smokes but i just like gettin stoned feels like im in the zone

[Auxin]

I smoked pot daily for 10 years and ciggies daily for 13 years (started both at the same time) and cigs were an order of magnitude harder to quit.

I always wonder about these scientists, who would not have got their jobs if they had ever admitted to using drugs in their younger days, claiming pot is as addictive as tobacco or heroin or crack.

Quitting pot did cause withdrawal symptoms for me, but fuck sake so does quitting anything that permeates every waking hour of your life.

I think much of the manufactured 'concern' over marijuana 'addiction potential' is just setting the stage for future blow jobs for pharmaceutical companies.

Over here they already give things like xanax, stilnox, and effexor for 'marijuana addiction' (how ironic is that?) and those treatments can even be mandated by courts! And thats without the condition of marijuana addiction even officially existing, just imagine when more of these pseudo-science papers get it put on the books.

Let people manage their biochemistry their own way.

People will still make mistakes, but at least their mistakes will be their own and not imposed on them by others.

[naja naja]

How do they know these people were not just assholes and the pot mearly masked their assholeness and when they quit, their assholeness returned and left the scientist to conclude that the widthdrawals made them assholes and that the assholeness wore off after a certain period of cecation?

[chilli]

So much denial. I love Cannabis, but as many of us know it can lead to real withdrawal symptoms for a percentage of heavy, chronic users.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_dependence

[etherealdrifter]

pot is like that girlfriend you hate(even when the if the unmentionable sex does not compute) but cannot rid your psyche of, yet she keeps coming around for suga cubes, bloddy potbitchofhell

[Opticaldelusion]

I stopped smoking weed 6 years ago and it took me a long time to face the withdrawals that I had on abstinence. I tried many times, but suffered severe insomnia, depression and night sweats, (and I mean the bed was soaked). I was a smoker from the moment I woke up and the moment I went to bed. Then a couple of times through the night when I would wake and punch a couple of cones as well. I got to the point where I couldn't eat without it and even had close friends who would stop mid meal for a couple of cones. I remember in my early days of smoking hearing a woman on the radio claiming she had beaten addiction to weed and laughing out loud to myself as she told her story. i couldn't fathom how one could become addicted to something that was (at the time) so much fun. When I finally stopped after a few years, I couldn't sleep for a week. Then couldn't sleep very well for about two weeks after. Three weeks no sleep and your body needs it and will reset itself. I must say however, I clung to cigarettes like never before, and found my cigarette intake increased considerably. I also replaced smoking weed with alcohol in an attempt to find some sort of change in consciousness. I have since, tried quitting smokes and though I thought they were secondary to the weed addiction, I have found the withdrawals are ten fold what I experienced when I stopped smoking weed. I mixed my weed with tobacco and I believe that this was half the problem.l. In summary, yes weed was addictive and I was a slave to my addiction to her for many years, but at the end of the day my battle was at least a third of what I experience on an ongoing basis with tobacco, other than the dreaded night sweats.

[mutant]

its real

calling this pseudo science isn't fair

I will be back

[dizzyanarchist]

i know where ur comin from in a way optical i constantly give weed breaks and i start to get on the spirits need something for a good nights sleep i got stuck at a point for 1 year i was smashing half a slab and heaps of cones everynight i got addicted to the drunk and stoned feeling eventually i tried to give up ended up smoking cones everynight again after a week because the habbit was getting to expensive and started driving didn't want to get caught drink driving. everytime i try giving it a break i get swets anxiety attacks. woken up with the sheets drenched to for about 2 weeks waking up to the smell of weed and swet and i get like a couple hours sleep for 3-4 nights then i go back to my old patterns which are still shit. now i still smoke a fair bit of green but i keep my habbit from costing to much. sometimes i sit there think fuck just got to be addicted to somethin although i find a key factor in it to be boredum and i need sleep to operate and anxiety attacks hurt my chest for me. i had the same from a bad slow habbit at one point but 20 fold in those sort of withdrawals. pot seems to keep me operating fine and i get a more normal amount of sleep tend to trust it more than what the doctor prescribes for anxiety. alcohol makes a fool out of me

Edited September 29, 2012 by dizzyanarchist

[Auxin]

its real

calling this pseudo science isn't fair

 

Well I said its real too, You missed my point.

Just probably being at least partly right doesnt prove that something is not pseudo-science.

The guy in question is an anti-marijuana campaigner with a blatant bias who had to publish his paper in his own journal just to get it in print, they used a small sampling of people who did not want to quit cannabis. I cant see his raw data but I have a hard time believing his claim of a statistical relationship of p = 0.0001 is even possible in a sample size of 3 dozen with no control group and most results collected by questionnaires and observations of behavior.

Bottom line is he forced people to do something they didnt want to, and grossly disrupted their life in doing it. No fucking shit they reacted disfavorably!

He then proceeded to push his political adgenda.

The guy wrote his conclusion before he wrote his hypothesis.

Marijuana abuse is bad.

So is pseudo-science, even if well intentioned.

[Sonny Jim]

I want to add that for me personally, the only thing I notice three days after I stop smoking (after smoking perhaps one half ounce per week of typical high grade hydro for several months straight) is increased mental cognition (mild but noticeable) and sometime a changes in my dreams for one or two nights. I actually feel very slightly better three days after I stop smoking, not that I feel unwell when I'm smoking I just feel a bit stoned when I wake up most morning and waking up without pot in my system feels noticeably different

I can't think of a single person, except online, that's commented otherwise. Not that I'm saying it's complete fiction but it certainly doesn't happen to everyone.

I wonder what gives with that because I can't think of another agonist style drug that only induces physiological dependence in some people and not others

Edited September 29, 2012 by Sonny Jim

[SunChaser]

 

[mutant]

jabez lol

auxin, point taken

I did not take the time to see the details behind the study

[LikeAshesWeFade]

There also seems to be a difference in addiction when it comes to synthetic cannabis and the real deal. The synthetics in my opinion are far more addictive because with me, they produce far more euphoria. Obviously due to the fact that they're a stronger agonist at the cb1 receptor. I haven't given myself long enough off the synthetics to determine how bad the withdrawals will be compared to real cannabis.. I doubt there will be too much physically but psychologically, thats going to be the tough one.

[Mycot]

"In the study, habitual pot users who were asked to abstain for two weeks experienced irritability, sleep difficulties and other symptoms that affected their ability to work and their relationships with other people, said study researcher David Allsop, of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre at the University of New South Wales"

These sound much like the symptoms one may expect if one asked most plebs to give up TV for two weeks. Not sure how much one can conclude from this although it will be made to read :- see how bad pot is.

No more addictive than TV, Mmmm

Edited October 1, 2012 by Mycot

[LikeAshesWeFade]

yeah nah... far more addictive than tv. I am one for using my phone alot and I would gladly put that on loan to get stoned. I feel a little lost without my phone but I certainly have no withdrawals from it.