Question

2. Describe the evidence, from both animal and human studies, that the endocannabinoids are involved in the extinction of learned fear responses. For this question, please do exactly that, provide one example from the research that is out there (not only from the book as again I want you to look to other literature for supporting this) regarding one human paradigm and one animal paradigm which supports this response.

Answer 1

Growing evidence from human and animal studies indicate that Cannabidiol,the main non psychotomimetic phytocannabinoid present in Cannabis sativa,alleviates anxiety in paradigms assessing innate fear.More recently,the effects of cannabidiol on learned fear have been investigated in preclinical studies with translational relevence for phobias and PTSD.Anxiety & trauma related disorders are psychiatric diseases with a lifetime prevelance of upto 25%.Phobias and post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) are characterized by abnormal and persistent memories of fear related contexts and cues.The effects of psychological treatments such as exposure therapy are often only temporary and medication can be ineffective and have adverse side effects.The evidence indicates that cannabidiol reduces learned fear in different ways:(1).cannabidiol decrease fear expression acutely,(2).cannabidiol disrupts memory reconsolidation,leading to sustained fear attenuation upon memory retrieval,and(3).cannabidiol enhance extinction,the psychological process by which exposure therapy inhibits learned fear.We conclude by outlined future direction for research to elucidate the neural circuit,psychologicak,cellular,and molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of fear memory processing by cannabidiol.This line if investigation may lead to the developmental of cannabidiol as a novel therapeutic approach for treating anxiety and trayma related disorder such as phobias and PTSD in future.One drug showing broad therapeutic potential in various psychiatric diseases is cannabidiol(CBT),the main non psychotropic constituent of Cannabis sativa plant.Studies in human s demonstrate the promise of CBT for treating anxiety and preclinical studies in rodents are elucidating the pharmacological mechanism underlying its acute anxiolytic effects.These mechanism include potential of serotonin (5-HT) transmission via 5HT1A receptor (5-HT1AR) activation and elevation of endocannabinoid levels via inhibition of their metabolism and reuptake,which indirectly facilitates cannabinoid receptor type 1(CB1R) activation.As well as reducing anxiety in behavioral test of unconditioned fear,emerging evidence indicates that CBT regulates fear learning and memory in paradigms that are translationally relavent to diseases such as phobias & PTSD,along with their psychological treatments.CBT regulatuon of auditory fear memory and its extinction,which forms the theoretical basis for exposure therapy.CBT regulation of fear memory processing,which have focused on contextual fear.Akthough no effects of CBT on auditory fear extinction,decreasing fear expression during extinction without interferung in its encoding is still a useful property that has a clinical implicatuons.In this respect CBT might be an improvement over other drugs used for treating the fear related symptoms of phobias and PSTD,which can impair extinction(e.g.,benzodiazepines) or have a less favourable side effects profild(e.g.,antidepressants).