Original Webinar: Friday, September 3, 2021

How Cannabis in Adolescence Influences Mood and Increases the Risk of Depression and Suicide

Featured expert: Gabriella Gobbi, MD, PhD , Professor, Dept. Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada

Cost: $0 (But we would welcome your donation!)
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Description
Dr. Gobbi will present laboratory data showing the impact of cannabis and on mood regulation and depression. She will present behavioral and electrophysiological data elucidating how endocannabinoid system interacts with monoamines in modulating mood. Moreover, she will present data from large human epidemiological and meta-analysis studies confirming the evidence that cannabis in long term induces depression and increases the risk of suicide in young populations.

Learning Objectives

  1. To understand how the endocannabinoid system modulates the mood in mammalian.
  2. To understand how THC induces “up and down” in the brain.
  3. To revise major studies carried out in humans showing a link between cannabis and depression and cannabis and suicide.

Speaker Bio
Dr. Gabriella Gobbi is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, McGill University. She leads a laboratory of basic science (Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit) and works as a Staff Psychiatrist at the Mood Disorder Clinic of the McGill University Health Center. Her research approach spans from bench to bedside, bridging the gaps between fundamental and clinical research.

Dr. Gobbi received her MD (1991) and her specialty in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (1995) from the Catholic University of Rome (Italy). She also earned a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and finalized a post-doc at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 1998. Dr. Gobbi’s lab is interested in understanding the pathophysiology of major depression and sleep related disorders and in the discovery of new treatments and cures for them.

In particular, her laboratory is studying the short- and long-term effects of cannabis use in mood and anxiety, and the potential beneficial effects of the drugs acting on the endocannabinoid system (endogenous cannabis) in the cure of mental diseases. Her lab is also studying the effect of melatonin in mood, anxiety and sleep regulation in an effort to understand how novel selective ligands for melatonin receptors (called MT1 and MT2 receptors) can be used to treat seasonal depression, major depression, sleep disorders, as well as pain.

Dr. Gobbi is author of more than 120 highly cited manuscripts in high impact journals, 20 book chapters, one book and holds international patents in psychopharmacology. She has won many prizes including the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP) Young investigator Award in 2012, the Venezia Prize in 2015 and the Sam Lal prize from the Boeckh Foundation in 2017. She has served as reviewer/editor for many journals, international grant agencies in Europe and the USA and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Dr. Gobbi served as an expert witness for the Canadian Senate (2012), the Ministry of Health (2019) and the Ministry of Justice (2019) of Quebec for the cannabis legislation, her studies on cannabis are included in the recommendation of Health Canada and have influenced policies raising the age of cannabis consumption from 18 to 21 yo and the regulation of cannabis advertisement in Quebec.

Questions?
Email Founder & CEO, Laura Stack, at [email protected].