Mood News.(tetrahydrocannabinol and depression, fear of gaining weight in women, and the relationship of fertility and women attractiveness)

Byline: Lois B. Morris

Happiness Helper

W hile investigating the way marijuana enhances mood, researchers at McGill University in Canada have made an interesting discovery. Experimenting with a synthetic cannabinoid equivalent to THC (the active ingredient in marijuana), they found that low doses lift depressionbut high doses make it much worse. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and her colleagues injected rats with a high or low dose of cannabinoids, or none at all, before subjecting them to a test known to induce depression-like behavior (such as immobility following frustration over an impossible task). The rats given the low dose demonstrated persistence during the challenge, and their brain levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which regulates mood, increased. But the higher-cannabinoids group experienced a drop in serotonin levelsbelow those of the rats who received no drugsand they gave up, Gobbi says. Self-regulating natural cannabis dosage is difficult, especially when it's smoked, she says, but she is confident that researchers will develop a prescription drug that increases levels of naturally existing cannabinoids in the brain, thereby achieving the antidepressant effects of the banned substance.

Fear of Fat

The misery many women put themselves through to achieve an ideal body may have little to do with wanting to be thin. What really motivates them, according to Alexander J. Mussap, a psychologist at Deakin University in Australia, is the fear of being fat. He studied 130 women, ages 18 to 40 (none of them diagnosed with an eating disorder), and found that women who were fearful and risk-averse ...