Thanks too Martin, for getting me thinking about this and keeping this relevant
to teaching Psych! No mean feat on TIPS sometimes ha. I agree about the
over-reach from this one study, but do feel the rat model COULD possibly be
relevant to the issue. I would (in addition to what's been mentioned already)
stress the need to examine the validity/match of physio mechanisms that might
be involved, and the importance of later replication and extension of findings.
Students (mine here anyways)seem to automatically dismiss research on animals
and can only think about random sampling, and yet immediately want findings
from one research study to be relevant to everything. Hmmm, sounds like they
are on their way to be typical journalists! Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
989-964-4491
peter...@svsu.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Martin Bourgeois" <mbour...@fgcu.edu>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 11:06:22 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: RE: [tips] Cannabis damages young eurocentric rat brains
Since I'm the one who mentioned the relevance to research methods courses, I'll
put my two cents in. For me, it's a great example of generalizing and
speculating way beyond the data (to go from rat behavior and physiology to
depression and anxiety in teenagers is a bit of a reach), and from Stephen's
description I'd say the media source and the original researchers both have
done so. By no means was I trying to imply that such research has no merit.
________________________________________
From: Gerald Peterson [peter...@vmail.svsu.edu]
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 11:01 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Cannabis damages young eurocentric rat brains
Thanks for the response Stephen! I was beginning to think I should have added
something about eurocentric biases to get some TIPS response ;-) I agree as
to the problematic news report about the study, but just was unsure about the
relevance to my students in a research methods class. I think now that the
clear relevance has to do with how the research process is itself clearly
tainted by commercialization and the pressure to glamorize, and make socially
relevant, one's efforts. This may be especially so at universities where
research findings need to be touted to alumni and donors.
Best holiday and new year wishes to TIPSTERS! Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
989-964-4491
peter...@svsu.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: sbl...@ubishops.ca
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 8:55:30 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [tips] Cannabis damages young brains
I said:
Read this news report. Then answer a simple question: who
> were the subjects of this alarming study?
> ---------------------------------
> Cannabis Damages Young Brains More Than Originally
> Thought, Study Finds
On 24 Dec 2009 at 13:47, Gerald Peterson wrote:
> Is the objection to the sweeping generalities in the piece? Is it to the
> emotionalism in the news notice?
> <snip> Is it that a rat model is not appropriate to answer questions about
> cannabis effects? Is the rat
> model not at all relevant to human teen brains?
It seems that my outrage has been met with puzzlement. I
wasn't disputing the importance of animal research, or its
relevance for understanding the human brain. I fully support
animal research for advancing neuroscience.
What I do not support is omitting essential information from a
press release and from news article based on that release. The
significant information was the word "rat". It seems to me there
was likely a deliberate attempt to prevent the reader from
learning that the study was carried out in rats, and instead to
encourage the conclusion that humans were studied.
This was done by using terms such as "adolescent", "teens",
and even "Canadian teenagers", all of which (unless some rats
have taken to wearing baggy pants, dissing their parents, and
listening to hip-hop) invariably makes us think of not-fully-grown
humans. I never heard a rat called a "teenager" before this
study, Canadian or not.
Why they did it is obvious. Studies demonstrating the dangers of
cannabis for teenagers are sexy; such studies for rats, not so
much. If you want publicity, you go with what is sexy, and hide
what can impair it. It's also wrong.
Rat studies are important. But it's a truism that rats are not
people, and we cannot simply assert their interchangeability, at
least not without further evidence. At a minimum, I would have
expected responsible researchers to say something like this,
"While this study was carried out in rats, future research may
lead to the discovery of similar brain changes in teenagers".
But if they did that, everyone, including journalists, would say
"ho-hum". Because we've had more than a few generations of
dire warnings about the toxic and brain-damaging properties of
pot, none of which have been supported by credible evidence.
One more rat study wouldn't do it for most people. Moreover, if
these researchers were so determined to show that cannabis is
harmful to humans, why weren't they studying humans in the
first place?
Yes, we have to use rats to study changes in neurochemicals in
the brain, because teenagers won't lend us their brains for the
purpose. But the neurochemical changes---> depression
hypothesis is in trouble, and jumping from neurochemical
changes in the rat brain to human depression is a leap as great
as the best of Evel Knievel's. Note that the behavioural
measures in this study were such things as "forced swim" and
"sucrose preference" for depression, and "novelty-suppressed
feeding test" for anxiety. When was the last time we diagnosed
depression and anxiety in teenagers with those kind of tests?
OK, rant ends. I repeat the offending news report below so you
can compare it with the above. As you read it, remember,
they're really talking about rats for their findings.
Stephen
>
> ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2009) - Canadian teenagers are
> among the largest consumers of cannabis worldwide. The
> damaging effects of this illicit drug on young brains are worse
> than originally thought, according to new research by Dr.
> Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research
> Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The new study,
> published in Neurobiology of Disease, suggests that daily
> consumption of cannabis in teens can cause depression and
> anxiety, and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain.
>
> "We wanted to know what happens in the brains of teenagers
> when they use cannabis and whether they are more susceptible
> to its neurological effects than adults," explained Dr. Gobbi, who
> is also a professor at McGill University. Her study points to an
> apparent action of cannabis on two important compounds in the
> brain -- serotonin and norepinephrine -- which are involved in
> the regulation of neurological functions such as mood control
> and anxiety.
>
> "Teenagers who are exposed to cannabis have decreased
> serotonin transmission, which leads to mood disorders, as well
> as increased norepinephrine transmission, which leads to
> greater long-term susceptibility to stress," Dr. Gobbi stated.
>
> Previous epidemiological studies have shown how cannabis
> consumption can affect behaviour in some teenagers. "Our
> study is one of the first to focus on the neurobiological
> mechanisms at the root of this influence of cannabis on
> depression and anxiety in adolescents," confirmed Dr. Gobbi. It
> is also the first study to demonstrate that cannabis consumption
> causes more serious damage during adolescence than
> adulthood.
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217115834.h
> tm or http://tinyurl.com/yc99kal
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Bishop's University
e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
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