Project 175935

While Canadian teenagers are among the highest consumers of marijuana in the world, cannabis consumed at a young age is associated with a higher risk of drug addiction, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. However, how adolescent cannabis exposure leads to the co-occurring mental illness of drug addiction and depression remains largely unknown. To resolve this problem, we propose to establish the first Canadian Cannabis Research Team consisting of the main experts on cannabis neurobiology in Canada. This team not only has 4 professors in 4 universities (University of Ottawa, McGill University, University of British Columbia and University of Montreal) with different expertise in preclinical neuroscience research but also has a unique expertise in translational neuroscience by putting preclinical scientists, psychiatrist, a psychologist and pharmacist together, thereby maximizing the likelihood of collecting the cutting-age research evidence being put into practice. Specifically, we will explore the critical involvement of the ventral tegmental area and dorsal raphe nucleus (two brain regions implicated to play a role in drug addiction and depression) in the developmental mechanism of the co-occurring mental illness of drug addiction and depression in rodents after an adolescent exposure of cannabinoids (chemical compounds found in cannabis or marijuana).

5-Ht Adolescent Adult Behavioral Sciences Cannabinoids Cannabis Cell Culture Depression Dopamine Dorsal Raphe Nucleus Drug Addiction Electrophysiology Marijuana Molecular Biology Mood Disorder Neuroanatomy Rat Serotonin Stress Synaptogenesis Ventral Tegmental Area Youth