A compound related to the active ingredient in marijuana may be accumulating in the spinal fluid of people with schizophrenia. This might explain why many sufferers smoke pot.
Many researchers blame schizophrenia on an overactive dopamine system in the brain.
Daniele Piomelli and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine already knew that making rats dopamine receptors hyperactive caused a surge in anandamide, a lipid that binds to the same receptors in the brain as marijuana. Now Piomelli s group has examined cerebrospinal fluid from 10 schizophrenic patients, taken for diagnostic purposes at the Medical College of Hannover in Germany. One explanation for the higher levels in schizophrenics is that the brain is attempting to compensate for a hyperactive dopamine system. It s the brain s response to bring this dopamine activity down, says Piomelli. But the brain cannot keep the amount of anandamide high enough to lower dopamine levels, he says.