Thesis
Chronic cannabis-induced alterations in stress reactivity
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
05/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004051
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/125002
Abstract
Cannabis is the most commonly used federally illicit drug in the United States and users frequently report stress relief as their primary reason for use. The endocannabinoid system is heavily involved in the neuroendocrine stress response, and recent research suggests the presence of a blunted stress response in human cannabis users. The purpose of this study was to examine alterations in rodent stress reactivity in male and female rats after 30 days of cannabis vapor self-administration. Rats were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions (0 mg/mL, 75 mg/mL, 150 mg/mL, or 300 mg/mL cannabis vapor) and subjected to an acute restraint stress challenge before vapor self-administration. Half of the animals were then subjected to a second stress challenge after vapor exposure while the other half served as a no-stress control group. I hypothesized that animals trained to self-administer cannabis vapor would have altered stress reactivity during the post-vapor stress challenge. I also hypothesized that chronic cannabis self-administration would produce dose- and sex-dependent changes in basal corticosterone under drug-free conditions compared to animals administering control vapor. Ultimately, evidence from this study revealed that basal CORT increased following vapor self-administration for all treatment groups, including the control group. Moreover, repeated cannabis exposure dose-dependently dampened stress reactivity in female, but not male, rats. However, female rats selfadministered more cannabis vapor than male rats, so the observation of a blunted stress response could be due to differences in cannabis administration rather than a sex difference. This study provides evidence that chronic cannabis self-administration causes a blunted stress response in female rats. While human cannabis users report decreased subjective stress and medical cannabis users report beneficial effects following acute cannabis use, this study contributes to emerging evidence that prolonged cannabis use produces alterations in the neuroendocrine stress response.
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Details
- Title
- Chronic cannabis-induced alterations in stress reactivity
- Creators
- Nicholas C. Glodosky
- Contributors
- Ryan McLaughlin (Advisor) - Washington State University, Department of Integrative Physiology and NeuroscienceCarrie Cuttler (Advisor) - Washington State University, Department of Psychology
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Psychology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900890792801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis