[creativecommon license] via Wikimedia CommonsPrevious work by Eti Ganon-Elazar and Irit Akirav (University of Haifa, Israel) suggested that cannabinoids might have a role in treating stress and anxiety disorders. Recently, the two researchers specifically examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder whose hallmark symptoms include an exaggerated acoustic startle reflex and enhanced negative feedback on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Ganon-Elazar and Akirav used the rat single-prolonged stress model of PTSD to determine whether cannabinoid receptor activation could prevent the induction of the behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to traumatic stress.
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