Subjective, cognitive and cardiovascular dose-effect profile of nabilone and dronabinol in marijuana smokers: Nabilone in marijuana smokers
Open accessAbstract
Marijuana dependence is a substantial public health problem, with existing treatments showing limited efficacy. In laboratory and clinical studies, the cannabinoid receptor 1 agonist oral Δ9tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; dronabinol) has been shown to decrease marijuana withdrawal but not relapse. Dronabinol has poor bioavailability, potentially contributing to its failure to decrease relapse. The synthetic THC analogue, nabilone, has better bioavailability than dronabinol. We therefore aimed to characterize nabilone's behavioral and physiological effects across a range of acute doses in current marijuana smokers and compare these with dronabinol's effects. Participants (4 female; 10 male) smoking marijuana 6.6 (standard deviation = 0.7) days/week completed this outpatient, within-subjects, double-blind, randomized protocol. Over seven sessions, the time-dependent subjective, cognitive and cardiovascular effects of nabilone (2, 4, 6, 8 mg), dronabinol (10, 20 mg) and placebo were assessed. Nabilone (4, 6, 8 mg) and dronabinol (10, 20 mg) increased ratings of feeling a good effect, a strong effect and/or 'high' relative to placebo; nabilone had a slower onset of peak subjective effects than dronabinol. Nabilone (6, 8 mg) modestly lowered psychomotor speed relative to placebo and dronabinol. There were dose-dependent increases in heart rate after nabilone, and nabilone (2 mg) and dronabinol (10 mg) decreased systolic blood pressure. Thus, nabilone produced sustained, dose-related increases in positive mood, few cognitive decrements and lawful cardiovascular alterations. It had a longer time to peak effects than dronabinol, and effects were more dose-related, suggesting improved bioavailability. Nabilone was well tolerated by marijuana smokers, supporting further testing as a potential medication for marijuana dependence.
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Reports of nabilone abuse are extremely rare and it has been suggested as a potential treatment for marijuana addiction.
“Reports of its abuse are extremely rare and the drug has been even recently suggested to be a potential treatment for marijuana addiction [24, 25].”
From Nabilone for the treatment of medication overuse headache: results of a preliminary double-blind, active-controlled, randomized trial (2012) · cites this paper as [25]
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- Authors
- Bedi, G., Cooper, Z. D., & Haney, M.
- Affiliations
- New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Haney, Margaret
- Venue
- Addiction Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-01-19
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 872-881
- ISSN
- 1355-6215 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3335956
- OpenAlex
- W2112216060
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 3.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Addiction Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA-09236, K01DA027755, K23DA034877, P50DA009236)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Toxicology › Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Keywords
- nabilone, dronabinol, cannabis use disorder, tetrahydrocannabinol, dose-response relationship, subjective effects, psychomotor speed, cardiovascular effects, heart rate, blood pressure, bioavailability, onset of action, relapse prevention
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Analysis of Variance, Biological Availability, Blood Pressure, Marijuana Abuse, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Double-Blind Method, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Placebos, Psychomotor Performance, Substance Withdrawal Syndrome, Dronabinol, Time Factors, Secondary Prevention, Young Adult, Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists
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