Psychotomimetic symptoms after a moderate dose of a synthetic cannabinoid (JWH-018): implications for psychosis

DOI

Background: Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are the largest class of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and are associated with an increased risk of overdosing and adverse events such as psychosis. JWH-018 is one of the earliest SCs and still widely available in large parts of the world. Controlled studies to assess the safety and behavioural profiles of SCs are extremely scarce. Aim: The current study was designed to assess the psychotomimetic effects of a moderate dose of JWH-018. Methods: Twenty-four healthy participants (10 males, 14 females) entered a placebo-controlled, double blind, within-subjects trial and inhaled vapour of placebo or 75μg/kg bodyweight JWH-018. To ascertain a minimum level of intoxication, a booster dose of JWH-018 was administered on an as-needed basis. The average dose of JWH-018 administered was 5.52 mg. Subjective high, dissociative states (CADSS), psychedelic symptoms (Bowdle), mood (POMS) and cannabis reinforcement (SCRQ) were assessed within a 4.5-h time window after drug administration. Results: JWH-018 caused psychedelic effects, such as altered internal and external perception, and dissociative effects, such as amnesia, derealisation and depersonalisation and induced feelings of confusion. Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest that a moderate dose of JWH-018 induces pronounced psychotomimetic symptoms in healthy participants with no history of mental illness, which confirms that SCs pose a serious risk for public health.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.34894/AYUYQ1
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05768-0
Metadata Access https://dataverse.nl/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=doi:10.34894/AYUYQ1
Provenance
Creator Theunissen, Eef L. ORCID logo; Reckweg, Johannes T. ORCID logo; Hutten, Nadia R.P.W. ORCID logo; Kuypers, Kim P.C. ORCID logo; Toennes, Stefan W. ORCID logo; Neukamm, Merja A. ORCID logo; Halter, Sebastian; Ramaekers, Johannes G. (ORCID: 0000-0003-4553-376X)
Publisher DataverseNL
Contributor Theunissen, Eef L.; faculty data manager FPN
Publication Year 2021
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
OpenAccess false
Contact Theunissen, Eef L. (Maastricht University); faculty data manager FPN (Maastricht University)
Representation
Resource Type experimental data; Dataset
Format application/x-spss-sav
Size 39004
Version 1.0
Discipline Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture; Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine; Life Sciences; Social Sciences; Social and Behavioural Sciences; Soil Sciences