Use and perceptions of Cannabidiol among individuals in treatment for opioid use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Cannabidiol (CBD) is a widely available cannabis product with many claims as to potential health benefits including alleviating symptoms related to opioid use disorder (OUD). However, little is known as to how individuals with OUD perceive CBD, to what extent they may already be using CBD, and for what purposes. METHODS: A survey was conducted among individuals receiving treatment for OUD at the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai in New York City from July 2021 to August 2023. The survey consisted of demographic questions, questions about opioid use, CBD use, and perceptions regarding CBD. Statistical analysis using ordinal logistic regression was employed to compare perceptions between CBD users and non-users while adjusting for age and race. RESULTS: Among 587 respondents, 550 completed the survey. Among all survey completers, 129 (23%) reported a history of using CBD for a variety of reasons including: anxiety (81, 62.8%), pain (65, 50.4%), sleep (63, 48.8%), depression (62, 48.1%), recreational purposes (32, 24.8%), or for other reasons (8, 6.2%). Of note, 22 (17.1%) respondents reported using CBD to control their addiction and 54 (41.9%) reported using CBD to ease opioid withdrawal symptoms. CBD users demonstrated more positive perceptions regarding its legality (ß = 0.673, OR = 1.960, 95% CI [1.211, 3.176], p = .006), social acceptance (ß = 0.718, OR = 2.051, 95% CI [1.257, 3.341], p = .004), and therapeutic potential compared to non-users. CBD users also had a more positive view of its potential future role in managing addiction (ß = 0.613, OR = 1.846, 95% CI [1.181, 2.887], p = .007). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights a significant association between CBD usage and progressive views regarding CBD among individuals with OUD, suggesting a growing interest in CBD as a potential adjunctive therapy for individuals in substance use treatment. Some patients are already using CBD for anxiety, pain, sleep, depression, or as a harm reduction intervention to control their addiction or for opioid withdrawal symptoms. These findings underscore the importance of integrating patient perspectives into future research and treatment strategies involving CBD in the context of OUD.

Neural Trajectories of Conceptually Related Events.

In a series of conceptually related episodes, meaning arises from the link between these events rather than from each event individually. How does the brain keep track of conceptually related sequences of events (i.e., conceptual trajectories)? In a particular kind of conceptual trajectory-a social relationship-meaning arises from a specific sequence of interactions. To test whether such abstract sequences are neurally tracked, we had participants complete a naturalistic narrative-based social interaction game, during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We modeled the simulated relationships as trajectories through an abstract affiliation and power space. In two independent samples, we found evidence of individual social relationships being tracked with unique sequences of hippocampal states. The neural states corresponded to the accumulated trial-to-trial affiliation and power relations between the participant and each character, such that each relationship's history was captured by its own neural trajectory. Each relationship had its own sequence of states, and all relationships were embedded within the same manifold. As such, we show that the hippocampus represents social relationships with ordered sequences of low-dimensional neural patterns. The number of distinct clusters of states on this manifold is also related to social function, as measured by the size of real-world social networks. These results suggest that our evolving relationships with others are represented in trajectory-like neural patterns.